A business that helps families of disabled children travel more easily has doubled its turnover and moved into new premises after receiving specialist scale-up support from Business Gateway East Renfrewshire.

Safe Place Beds Ltd. was founded by Lucy Todd after she struggled to find suitable travel bed options for her son. Lucy is a proud mum to CJ, who has complex additional needs including epilepsy and autism. CJ has a specialist bed in the home, but when he outgrew a travel cot it became increasingly difficult to go on holiday or visit relatives.

She searched online for solutions and what she found was bulky, heavy, complicated and expensive. She found the American website for Safe Place Beds, which are compact, affordable beds for children with additional needs.

The Safe Place Bed provided the perfect solution, but shipping from America was expensive and Lucy saw a gap in the market. During the pandemic she contacted the American owners of Safe Place Beds and asked if she could distribute in the UK. They took a chance on her and said yes.

The lightweight, compact and easy-to-assemble beds are designed for children aged between 3-13 years old with conditions like autism, Angelman syndrome, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, epilepsy, Smith Magenis syndrome and a wide range of chromosomal conditions.

Driven to provide the best for each family’s needs, Lucy takes a warm, informative approach to customer service, always ensuring a Safe Place Bed is the right fit for them before buying. She is also committed to reducing the environmental impact of the business: beds are shipped in a carbon-neutral way in fully recyclable packaging and recent design improvements mean that individual parts can now be replaced, extending product life and reducing waste.

The way that customers use the Safe Place Bed has also changed, with approximately 50% of customers using it as a permanent bed in the home.

In March 2024, the business moved to new premises at Greenlaw Works in Newton Mearns. In April 2024, the business was formalised from a sole trader to a limited company. And in May 2024, the first member of staff was recruited – another parent of children with additional needs.

Since 2024, Lucy has been able to significantly scale up the business with Business Gateway’s East Renfrewshire Accelerator programme, which provided expert guidance across a range of areas including marketing, social media, GDPR, shipping, online marketplaces, HR, moving premises, business planning and access to funding. Turnover has doubled for the business since it started on the Accelerator programme.

Lucy Todd, Safe Place Beds Ltd owner, said:

“My journey with Safe Place Beds Ltd has been about helping people like me. I know what a difference peace of mind makes. The East Renfrewshire Accelerator programme has been amazing for me. I’ve spent a lot of time with other people who are running businesses, received fantastic training, and always had someone from Business Gateway on hand to discuss things with.”

Scott Arnot, Business Gateway East Renfrewshire adviser, said:

“Lucy had already laid strong foundations with Safe Place Beds Ltd. and we were glad to support her in taking the next steps. We looked at how a range of aspects of the business could be enhanced, and it’s been great to see how transformative things like securing a dedicated space and funding have been for her vision.”