Our Story
My name is Stuart Loach and in the Autumn of 2019, I launched Envirotoy – a plastic free toy shop. How I got to this point is detailed below! In the summer of 2019, I found myself at a bit of a cross roads in my life having recently left my corporate job which I had been doing for 5 years. I was on a mission to decide what to do next. One thing was for sure, re-entering the corporate slog was not an option. Luckily I had plenty of time to think about this as I meandered my way down the country on a bicycle with a good friend of mine. In the forefront of my mind, i’d decided that I wanted to start a business but was this business going to be?
Through the first two years of running Envirotoy, i’d learnt a lot! About toys, retail and had lots of ideas for the future. It’s at this point I decided to rebrand the business as Karooku Kids! Many of the same principles applied but it means we can expand into items such as tableware, clothes and general kids items. A kids store where the products are as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible, whilst at the same time being great products that people love to own!
The prospect of a rental market for children’s items was always something that interested me – children grow up extremely fast and what is a hit today is less so tomorrow. With rental, the numbers didn’t quite add up but with our return used for 40% offer – the prospect of a pre-loved shop of high quality toys was an idea. This meant toys would have a long and useful life and could save people money.
Stuart, Founder.