A SUCCESSFUL toy maker hopes to share her marketing magic with other small businesses in a new venture.

Sarah Greenwell created the Elf for Christmas brand five years ago while on maternity leave.

She has seen it go from prototypes on her kitchen table to the shelves of stores such as Selfridges, John Lewis and Waterstones.

As global sales of her growing range of Christmas elf toys top 50,000, the 37-year-old mother-of-two is not resting on her laurels, with the launch of a new business, Stick Marketing, with fellow director, Bev Walton.

The Durham-based venture has already secured several clients, within a fortnight of the official launch of the agency.

Mrs Greenwell, who lives with husband Ian and children Holly, seven, and five-year-old Finley, in Durham, enjoyed a successful marketing career, initially as an in-house manager before launching her own agency.

“I founded my first marketing agency, Glow Creative, in Durham, back in 2007.

“I built it up over 10 years into something I was really proud of.

“Almost as a sideline, I launched Elf for Christmas in 2015.

“It was an instant hit, selling 3,000 units in 10 weeks.

“Parents and children alike just loved the brand.

“The following year was even more amazing.

“We launched our Elf for Christmas Advent Letters, which were featured on tv on This Morning, and sales just went through the roof.”

She said 15 years’ experience helping other companies thrive through creative marketing, she knew the Elf brand, “had legs”, so she decided to sell Glow Creative, throwing all her energy into building up the Elf business.

Elf for Christmas has since continued to thrive with an expanded range to include new characters, personalised letters, books, cards, pyjamas, an elf door and more.

They are sold in not only the UK, but also in Europe, Australia, South Africa and the USA.

Explaining the move into marketing, she said: “The last few years have been incredibly busy.

“But the rapid growth has meant we’ve had to put more systems in place to deal with things like managing the supply chain, order processing and despatching, etc.

“That has given me more freedom to concentrate on the creative side of the business, doing things I love, like product development and creative marketing.

“It also means I have the freedom to help other businesses thrive again.

“I’ve learned so much over the last decade, so I’d love to be able to apply it to other businesses to help them succeed too.

“Bev has worked with me for five years now, and we know our individual strengths and skills.

“We know they combine so well, so we’re both really excited to get going with it.”