A HUSBAND and wife duo are targetting revenues of £10 million after turning a North Yorkshire hardware store into a thriving online business supplying both the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

Gary Lyons and his wife Lisa have built their business on a market for plastic boxes across the UK, which they discovered while running a hardware shop in Thirsk.

Now employing a team of ten, with access to more than £8 million worth of stock, the PlasticBoxShop is hoping to impress judges in the Retailer of the Year category in this year's Press Business Awards.

The venture started when Mrs Lyons' father, who rand a chain of hardware stores in the North East, lent the couple £15,000 to open a similar store in Thirsk.

Called Yorkshire Deals, it supplied a variety of goods, but Mr Lyons noticed one particular stock line was increasingly popular.

He said: "We used to stack plastic storage boxes outside the shop and they were always a good seller.

"I always had a big warehouse and bought direct from the manufacturer to keep prices down. We started selling boxes to several local schools and other businesses in the area, and that side of the business grew fast."

By then, around 2003, the internet was also taking off and Mr Lyons started experimenting with online sales, initially through eBay then taking more control with the shop’s own basic website.

He said: "I saw there was a market there and even before our first website was fully launched we were getting orders coming in."

To support their new online venture Gary invested in a secondhand portable cabin as the office, siting it on a local farm where he could also rent buildings to store his stock, starting with one but soon needing three.

He said: "After about two years the balance was starting to tip. Lisa and I could see there was real potential for the web business if we devoted all our efforts to it, but it would mean letting go of the shop.

"It was a great little business, with strong turnover and low overheads, so it was a gamble to let it go."

With two children under four made it was a big step, but the couple believed in their vision for plasticboxshop.co.uk

Me Lyons said: "We put absolutely everything into it. We remortgaged the family home to buy more stock so we could keep prices down and meet quick delivery times.

"Then we moved to new premises, with a bigger warehouse, and crucially we invested in a new and much improved website."

Today PlasticBoxShop is split roughly 50:50 between retail and trade sales.

PlasticBoxShop supplied boxes to the 2012 London Olympics, and the 2014 Commonwealth Games, as well as counting several TV companies, fashion houses and other national companies among its clients.

Mr Lyons said: "It was quite a moment to see Usain Bolt put his tracksuit top in one of our boxes before winning the 100 metres final."