As we have just reached our 6th birthday (hurray!), we thought it might be nice to tell you all the story of Creature Candy and how our founder Lizzie started our wonderful little business.
Tell us a bit about your background?
I was a bit of a late starter with my career and until the age of 28 I had no idea what I wanted to do. After I dropped out of a business studies course at Uni, I just kind of drifted from job to job (I’ve literally tried everything from shoe shop manger to estate agent) and then decided to go back to my first love - ballet! I trained as a ballet, tap and modern dance teacher and taught young children for a number of years. But it wasn’t the right career for me and I was deeply unhappy and unfulfilled.
At the age of 28, I decided to go to Aberystwyth University to study a degree in Zoology, as wildlife and nature had always interested me and given me a sense of calm and also a thirst to learn! 3 years later, I was awarded with a first class honours degree and left hand in hand with my future husband Sam! I was certainly on the right path now.
Why did you then start a career as an ecologist?
I really just fell into the ecology work. I did some research on what people generally do after gaining a degree in zoology, and it seemed many people went down the ecology route. The work sounded very interesting and so I started to send my CV to a few consultancies asking for work experience. Something that is very important to do these days!
My first job was on a bat survey, assisting a senior ecologist with a dusk emergence survey, where I needed to watch a derelict building for a couple of hours to see if any bats flew out. That was my first encounter with bats and I was immediately hooked! I then went on to work freelance with several different consultancies, building my knowledge and experience all the time. I was given my bat licence about two years later.
How and when did the idea for Creature Candy happen?
In 2014 I started to feel like I wanted to do more for wildlife conservation and support the wildlife charities I had been working so closely with for the past 4 years. Whilst working as an ecologist, I was stunned by many peoples view on bats, and their descriptions of them as vermin or flying rats! I needed to do something about this and education is the only way forward.
I did some research and realised there was a big gap in the market for products that not only raise awareness of declining wildlife, but also depicted real life hand drawn images of the species on the products, so people can see just how beautiful they are. I also realised this was a perfect opportunity to raise funds for the wildlife charities that work so hard to conserve and protect our wildlife. So I started working on a bat design with my illustrator Jo Medlicott (who I met at Uni), and the brown long-eared bat became our first design, with all proceeds going to the Bat Conservation Trust. We soon had many requests for other species, so we also designed a moth and bumblebee to sit alongside our bat. Our website and the brand launched in Jan 2015.
Six years later and we have 20 designs, support 15 charities and have donated almost £15,000!
What’s next for Creature Candy?
2020 was our most successful year so far, and we were able to take record sales, support a record number of charities and also grow the team from 1 to 3! Myself, Della and Ruth are the perfect dream team and we all have different, well suited roles within the business.
2021 is looking set to be even better! We have just started moving into our first ever office space and we welcome Stacey to the team in March. We will be launching new designs in the Spring, including an elephant, giraffe and arctic fox to raise awareness of trophy hunting and the fur trade, and we have a list of charities waiting in the wings to work with us. We are currently working on new designs with them, but its all top secret for now! All I can tell you is there are some very exciting times ahead.
Once things have got better in the world (hopefully soon), we’d love to run some pop-up shops as there is nothing like meeting your customers face to face. We’ve really missed going to all the bat, dormouse etc conferences so hopefully we can start attending these again soon.
I’d love to grow the team even more, and also start to take a wage myself. Not many people know that I have never taken a wage from Creature Candy and all the profits we make go back into the business to help it grow and to develop new products, and what’s more important than that?
I’ve not had the greatest of starts to the year on a personal level, as I contracted COVID in January whilst 8 weeks pregnant. It was a very worrying time for us but I’m doing much better now and I’m delighted to announce our second child is due in August. I’m so grateful I have such a wonderful team around me to help manage the business, as without them it would not be possible. Thanks Della & Ruth!
What is your favourite design so far?
It has to be the long-eared bat as this was our first design and I have a little soft spot for him. It remains to this day our best seller!
And finally…….
I’d like to say a huge thank you to all our customers, supporters and charities for coming on our journey with us over the past 6 years. It’s been amazing and I can honestly say I love my job with all my heart! I wonder how many people can say that?
Lots of love to you all and stay safe.
Lizzie x
“Creature Candy was created to raise awareness of Britain’s declining & protected wildlife species, to inspire people to take active roles in conservation and to help raise funds for the charities that endeavour to conserve our wildlife. Creature Candy proudly donates 10% of the sale price of every product sold to fourteen different British wildlife charities and one children’s charity. ”