Letterbox Lab who won retail start-up of the year has created a children’s science subscription service that can be delivered straight to your door
An idea of what kids can get up to with Letterbox Lab. Credit: Dr Bryan Hatton, Letterbox Lab
Letterbox Lab based here in Cardiff won retail start-up of the year at the Wales Start-Up Awards in September due to their innovative subscription box idea.
The company provides science kits for children with everything needed to perform the experiments in the comfort of your own home.
Founders Mia and Dr Bryan Hatton were inspired to try and find a new way for families to enjoy and play with science. They wanted it to be regardless of background and prior knowledge of the subject.
Bryan, 39, said they both wanted to continue using their scientific backgrounds when they considered starting a business. “We wanted to continue doing what we loved, which is getting kids to play with science. But, we wanted to do something that was ours, that we would be in control of and running ourselves.
“We didn’t know about subscription boxes at the time, but we thought of Graze boxes that send food and thought why don’t we do it with kids science experiments?”
On winning the award, he said it was absolutely amazing and mind-blowing for them to be awarded for excellence in retail.
Letterbox Lab has created something unlike anything else currently in the industry, which has seen rapid growth over the last few years.
According to Forbes there were 3,500 subscription box services as of October 2018 in the UK, an increase of 40% from the year before.
It is thought the industry is booming due to the boxes being a great solution for an indecisive consumer, as the contents can be unpredictable, so you don’t always know what you are going to get.
Letterbox Lab have created two different boxes for different age groups, one for ages 6-12+ and one for 8-12+. These can be found and ordered via their website and can be purchased as a subscription or as a one-off purchase.