Back in 2021, as The Press reported at the time, Tom Calvert, now 28, along with his younger sisters, Georgia, 26, and Olivia, 25, turned an empty shop in York city centre in to Avorium – their very own store selling desk accessories and stationery.
They opened their doors at 13, Colliergate, for the first time on November 13 that year and the business has gone from strength to strength.
Now the family is planning to open a new outlet, as well as the York shop, in the Corn Exchange in Leeds city centre.
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Tom said: “We saw the place in the Corn Exchange about six weeks ago and we loved it. We’re aiming for an end of April opening and we just want to get in there now.
“It’s such a cool space. We have always liked Leeds as it’s more of a shopping destination than York which is more geared for tourism.
“It’s a very good sign for the York shop as well because it shows that the business is working.
“We have a couple of York students working with us in the York shop now and we have just hired a Leeds University student who is going to be helping us in the Leeds shop.”
The siblings will still be working in both the York and Leeds shops with plans to open in the Corn Exchange from 10am-6pm Monday – Saturday and from 10.30am-4.30pm on a Sunday.
The products can be personalised with everything from leather notebooks, diaries and folios to plantpots, phone stands and coasters.
All three siblings went to St Peter’s School in the city and live in York.
Tom said the top floor in York now has a wedding consultation room which is doing well and provides couples with everything from save the dates to wedding invites, menus, place settings and seating plans to welcome signs.
The family has also been attending Christmas markets.
“York Christmas market is the absolute highlight of our yearand we are planning to do more Christmas markets this year,” said Tom who said they are hoping to appear in York as well as Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, Manchester and Bath.
“As a local business, Christmas time is the best part of the year for us, it’s the difference between us having a great year and a bad year and we notice a big up tick in the shop,” said Tom.
“Independent shops are so crucial to York and things like Spark:York and the Christmas markets are so crucial to helping small businesses grow – I can’t really say anything bad about them.”
Follow the business on Instagram @avorium_
