Happy Birthday to us! Celebrating 10 years of The Gift Scholars.

Sophia Bates
4 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Behind every business, there is a story to tell. Here is our (much condensed) story so far…

In 2015, having spent years in the retail & merchandise sector, Chris Rogers had a vision to create a new kind of merchandise company. With one overarching principle: the customers would be treated with honesty & integrity, no hidden costs or false promises. The company would have a commitment to producing quality goods that it was proud to sell.

At the same time, business partners John Bates & Mark Byrd were developing a business importing remote control cars and other toys. Having attended the same school, the three had known each other for years. Subsequent conversations revealed that they shared common ambitions and values, & between them had the perfect combination of skills to run a successful business together. This soon led to the founding of toy company CMJ Gifts (named after the three directors) & on November 30^th 2015, The Gift Scholars Ltd. was born - with a focus on the design & manufacture of bespoke merchandise.

As is often the case with start-ups, the directors spent the early days working closely together in the most affordable places they could find- a small, rented office in a business park, then a converted garage office at the home of a family member. Quickly outgrowing the small space, in 2017 the company relocated to its first ‘proper’ office & began to employ a small staff - including Laura, the longest-serving member of our team.

Our reputation in the sports merchandise industry grew rapidly, and we received an encouraging amount of our new business via recommendations.

From our humble beginnings serving our earliest customers; Edgbaston, Millwall F.C. & Celtic F.C. being the first on our books, we are proud to now supply the vast majority of Premier League & Championship clubs.

This is alongside a huge number of other sports, retail, leisure & charitable organisations. We have a unique relationship with each & every one of our customers, & place huge value in maintaining and developing these. Only by getting to know our customers, & their end consumers, can we provide them with the best product to serve their needs.

At the same time, we grew our range of off-the-shelf products, most notably the popular Zappi co. range of plush toys. This collection now boasts a selection of over 400 lines & is available across the UK & Europe in a huge number of retail locations, which grows every week.

CMJ Gifts quickly gained traction as a reliable provider of remote-control toys. With a number of high-end car licence brands, & a reputation for quality at an affordable price, we found success in volume with a number of high street retailers. This began with Argos as early as 2017, & we proudly made it into their iconic catalogue in the summer of 2019!

After running both companies alongside each other for several years, the decision was taken in 2019 to incorporate CMJ into The Gift Scholars Ltd. Our remote-control brand name lives on as CMJ RC Cars, having earned an impressive standing in the toy world.

Starting up & running a business is bound to bring its fair share of challenges, not in the least in the form of a global pandemic. As with everyone else, we found ourselves in unchartered territory in February 2020 when Covid-19 hit the UK. Uncertainty amongst our sports and leisure customers filtered through to us, & we found ourselves navigating a very challenging time.

With lockdown forcing our office to be sitting empty, the decision was taken to close those doors permanently & try to weather the storm working from makeshift office set-ups at home. The business adapted to the challenge; with online trading coming into its own we were able to grow sales in new areas, and the diversity of our product offering was certainly a contributing factor in our survival.

Fast forward to the summer of 2020, we found our new home in the Warwickshire village of Bidford-Upon-Avon. With our own warehouse, we were able to take control of our distribution & storage, providing a more efficient service to our customers. To do this, we also needed a bigger team, & recruited staff in all areas of the business.

Further expansion in 2022 brought with it a need for more storage & a dedicated showroom for visiting customers. When the neighbouring unit became available, we jumped at the chance to take it on & renovate the space to suit our needs. The result was a large, bright space with a comfortable meeting area, surrounded by our latest product offerings.

Another year, another building! In 2023, needing more office space, we took on our third unit. As well as a third warehouse, the additional rooms gave us a chance to have our own photographic studio to shoot our own products, and to offer photography to our customers where needed. Looking further afield, we welcomed Andrew to our sales team, representing us in the German sports and leisure market.

This year also saw our first staff holiday. Never a company to do things by half, we all hopped on a plane to Ibiza & enjoyed some much-needed time social time together.

2024 saw our biggest show stand at the NEC Spring Fair, & our licensing portfolio grew rapidly. Following an informative visit to the Las Vegas Licensing Expo, we developed relationships with several brands outside of the sports industry & now produce officially licensed products spanning 29 brands - including Coca-Cola, Liverpool F.C., Magic Light & Team G.B. It’s an exciting area of growth for us, with a chance to broaden our range of goods & to flex our creative muscles.

We strengthened our sales team once again this year, with Christophe introducing our bespoke services to new clients in France. A few months later, our trade website launched, giving customers the freedom to browse & order stock at their convenience. A year on, we’re pleased to see that it has been thoroughly well received with customers old & new benefiting from the new easy & streamlined process it brings.

In September of 2024, the team visited Marrakech together for a well-deserved mini break, a reward for everyone’s dedication & hard work.

There is an appreciation at The Gift Scholars that every member of the company plays an important part in the story of our success. It is easy to admire a beautifully designed new product, or to be impressed by sales figures, but there is so much going on behind the scenes that contributes to every accomplishment. From the efficient dispatch of goods & the invoices paid on time, to the warm welcome given to every visitor who steps foot through our door, our day-to-day is in every way a team effort & our achievements belong to us all.

Now that we find ourselves in 2025, at 10 years old, we couldn’t be prouder of what we have accomplished & it’s never been a more exciting time for us! Our recent acquisition of two well respected businesses in our industry brings us new product specialisms, valued client relationships & talented colleagues to strengthen our team.