BRAND NEW DIRECTIONS Opportunity KNOCKS

Meet the women behind businesses that deliver gift boxes to your door

- CAROLINE BEDDOW

TOP TIP

Consider from the very start the look and the scale of the business you want.

'Our biscuits are works of art'

London-based mother of four Harriet Hastings, 58, used her skills gained from working for a top London PR agency to create her renowned hand-iced biscuit business, Biscuiteers.

THE IDEA

I had run out of steam as a brand director, had just had my fourth child and wanted more control of my time. The light-bulb moment came in early 2007, during a weekend in New York, when I saw some iced biscuits. I realised that biscuits were a blank canvas, they had a great shelf life and could be posted. So Biscuiteers was born, offering online collections of beautifully hand-iced biscuits.

My husband Stevie had a catering business, so initially I used his industrial kitchen, where we baked and tested recipes and designs. I employed art students to do the icing. Biscuiteers was positioned to be like a fashion brand, so the biscuits had to be works of art. I made a deal with a design agency to create packaging, marketing materials and a website for a stake in the business.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT 

The business set off like a rocket. The first tins of biscuits styled on fashion items such as shoes and handbags went out to customers in September 2007. The media coverage was incredible and the orders just kept coming. That November, we moved to our own rented kitchens and hired bakers, and by Christmas I had paid back the start-up loan. I was thrilled when fashion brands like Burberry and Mulberry got in touch in 2008, asking us to create special gift-box collections for their media launches and clients.

BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT