Latest News | 5 November 2020
Colleague Box grows workforce thanks to university
Gift company Colleague Box has thanked the University of Derby for helping it recruit 10 new staff.
The business was set up during lockdown by Derby husband and wife Adam and Natalie Bamford when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak.
Since then, the firm has grown apace, with Marketing Derby helping it find its first commercial premises – a 3,000 sq ft warehouse at Sawley Park Business Centre – last month.
To help it meet a big rise in orders, which recently saw the firm pack and ship 20,000 pumpkins for a company-wide carving competition, Colleague Box enlisted the help of the University of Derby’s Student Employment Agency to find the right people for the job.
Natalie said: “It has been a phenomenal few months for Colleague Box and Adam and I realised quite quickly that we would need help to cope with an increase in demand for our boxes, particularly the 20,000-pumpkin order we received from a global delivery company.
“We spoke to Bev Crighton, senior lecturer at the University of Derby, who put us in touch with Davinder Dhadli, SEA officer at the university.
“Davinder handled the full recruitment cycle for us. She’s been brilliant and found us 10 perfect recruits, who are all very hard-working and, as well as being great ambassadors for the University of Derby, are fantastic assets for Colleague Box.”
Initially, the students were employed for temporary work but, with an influx of orders for Colleague Box’s range of Christmas and New Year boxes as the UK prepares for a very different festive season under coronavirus restrictions, there is a possibility that the students will be needed well into 2021.
Davinder said: “The people we have at the University of Derby study subjects as varied as business, education, sport, law and events management so there is a broad range of skills available.
“By definition, students and recent graduates also have a passion for learning and self-development; an important attribute in any employee.”
