Chaos in Cardiff and FHM Feature Frenzy. Michael Acton-Smith.

Michael Acton-Smith Co-founder of Calm and Mind Candy

Firebox’s first big hit was a Shot Glass Chess Set. We were selling about one a day and packing them in Tom’s Mum attic in a village outside of Cardiff.

We had a feature in FHM and orders jumped way up. We ordered a lot more stock to the house. A huge articulated lorry turned up one morning outside Tom’s parent’s house in their very quiet street. Curtains twitched as the confused driver came to the front door and asked if this was our warehouse and did we have a forklift truck.

He smoked as he walked dog poo through the house and we stored dozens of pallets and boxes throughout the entire house.

That evening over dinner Tom’s Mum politely asked us to leave and get our own packing facility.