Website broadens market for outdoor adventure kit seller Battlebox

Jonathan Turner, the chief executive of the Bayford Group, who started investing in Bramham-based Battlebox about 12 months ago and has to date put in around £200,000, said the firm is now a 24/7 operation, rather than being seasonal. Emma de Vere Hunt, founder of Battlebox and a friend of Mr Turner, was previously focused on the Christmas market, he said.

“We’ve got a brand new website and that’s where a lot of the money has been invested. We’re probably going to do [sales of] about £60,000 or £70,000 this year.” He added: “We’ve had a lot of orders from America, we have one from Australia, one from South Africa, and these aren’t from ex-pats, these are people that just get the whole thing about kids being outside.” He said that the business would be looking at direct mail and catalogues next.

Ms de Vere Hunt, who set up Battlebox three years ago, was so dismayed by the lack of energetic play activities for her son Edward that she created her own solution, comprising a series of outdoor activity kits.

She said: “I started the business after noticing the increasing number of screen-based games aimed at young children. At six years old Edward had outgrown the traditional wooden train sets and available toys seemed limited to television spin-offs or computer games.

“I therefore created a kit with clothes, equipment and tools - everything he needed to have an adventure. I have nothing against consoles or TV but children do need to learn that real life can be a much more interesting place to be.”

Mr Turner and Liz Slater, managing director of the Bayford Group, together own 50 per cent of Battlebox, while Ms de Vere Hunt owns the other half. The Bayford Group, which is Yorkshire-based, moved into oil distribution in the early 1960s and then into petrol retailing, before diversifying into property investment and development, opencast coal mining, shipping, electronics, pollution prevention and fuel cards.