No toying around - Mike and Gill Carter, heads of a massively-growing empire of the furry, the feathery and always oh-so-cute at their showroom in Escrick, York - are going to find a £500,000 Christmas present in their bank account.

'Is that amount all right?', asked Mr NY Noh, president of the Korean-based Aurora Corporation, which has equal shares in the Carters' A & A Soft Toys distribution company.

Mike, gulping on the Yorkshire end of the phone, was unlikely to say No to Mr Noh, especially as this $800,000 cash injection was Korea's clear expression of ultimate confidence in a project which has given new and opposite meaning to the term "bear market" as big names like Coca Cola and Harrods now tap insistently on their door for new promotional designs of cuddly bruins among other beasties

Mike is managing director and wife Gill the general manager of A & A Soft Toys which they started two years ago with the help of Aurora. The Koreans knew his track record, not just as someone who was third generation owner of Carters toys and sports retailers in Bradford, but also as a toy salesman par excellence.

He was good enough for Aurora to ditch plans to set up a German outpost for an invasion into Europe and instead give him the Yorkshire-based task.

Mike resigned his job as sales manager for a big Yorkshire toy company and with the help of a separate £100,000 capital starter from Aurora (which also organised soft loans facilities for him in the Far East) began his venture with Gill and it paid off.

Proof of the pudding - or rather padding - is that in its first year during which the handsome couple moved operations from Lendal to their home in Brandsby turnover was a breathtaking £1.8 million.

This year turnover reached £3.8 million as the couple have sold 300,000 of their little animals every month, a fact unearthed by Mike which even has Gill gasping: "Do we really?!"

Oh yes, says Mike, pointing proudly at the computer print-off. And considering they took on their first employee in August, 1997 - "the hardest decision we ever made," says Mike - you can see how far they have come.

Today they have a staff of 24, working in those sleek offices and showrooms on an award-winning industrial development off the A19 where a band of bloodhound puppies silently greet customers with their chins balanced on the banisters, where the showroom is festooned with a massive range of aah-appeal possums and parrots, silly snakes and snails, turtles and tigers, meercats and mirthful mandrille monkeys, and, of course a mass picnic of bears...

There are even more to be seen in a new 50,000 sq ft warehouse in Middlesbrough managed by Mike's son, Matthew, 27, and burgeoning with "plush goods," the trade name for soft material toys.

And the plush rush intensifies with a turnover target set at £6.5 million in millennium year and £10 million in 2001. "In the New Year we'll add another four to the staff and we reckon we'll eventually end up with around 50 people on the payroll," says Mike.

Normally the toy trade experiences three seasons. One of them is technically over - namely Christmas "although you'd be surprised at the number of repeat orders we're still getting in," says Gill.

There is also Easter and right now, Valentine. Being dispatched this moment are thousands of Wesley bears clutching woolly hearts, white Mikey bears sighing over white roses, cheeky mice proffering roses in plantpots and bean-bulging red devils with "I love you" scrawled across their chests.

But there is now a fourth season which is being prepared in parallel to all this kissy-stuff - and that is Millennium. Mike says: "We stocked collectibles like Millennium Bears which we limited to 2,000 and retailed at £59.99 but that went down to 1,998 after a certain someone decided to keep the first and last for herself." (Cue for that certain someone to smile guiltily at her husband.)

"Now we are launching a range of Baby 2000 teddy bears for all those human babies who are born in millennium year. We'll do a collectible limited version and one for general sale."

The Koreans are clearly impressed by Mike's innovative spirit. Obvious to him was the idea of selling a range of dogs and cats branded with the Battersea Dogs' home seal of approval, earning the charity 50p for every one sold. Just as obvious was a similar licensing to the Kennel Club which earns royalties from Mike's top ten popular breeds, including Westies, Yorkshire Terriers and German Shepherds.

The toy battle of Britain is going well. Customers include Harrods, Hamleys, Birthday Card Shops, and in York, Magson's wholesalers and shops like Fenwicks, Coppergate, the English Teddy Bear Company in Stonegate and Mary Shortle in Lord Mayor's Walk. But the battle for Europe is about to begin.

And the Carters have made a phenomenal start. Only last week they negotiated sole rights to produce plush toys under the brand name of Coca Cola (Europe), including fluffy versions of the cute polar bear cubs in the television cartoon advertisement for the drink.

Mike says: "They're beanies, or bean-filled and that contract should increase our turnover by more than £100,000."

He has also just signed up to produce "character" toys like James the Cat, another television cartoon being marketed in Europe. "It should open doors for us in supermarkets throughout the continent as well as WH Smiths stores in Britain."

They have been so busy they have hardly had time to take stock and reward themselves with the "creature" comforts they deserve. They still live in their modest little end cottage in Brandsby and they have allowed themselves to indulge in a new conservatory "so that I can enjoy my music and look at my half acre garden.".

Sure, he drives a 7 series BMW but her car is a modest little Peugeot 205. And occasionally they extend work trips into holidays in the Far East, but there will be time enough for indulgences given the happy discovery made by Mike.

He says: "I suddenly realised that the Millennium is not just the year 2000. It's scheduled to continue for another 1,000 years!"

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.