Phenomenal growth of Devon jigsaw puzzle company as sales double during the pandemic

A Devon-based business that makes jigsaw puzzles has doubled its production workforce, increased its premises and invested for future growth as a result of soaring demand for its popular picture puzzles during the last eighteen months. 

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, All Jigsaw Puzzles has grown its workforce in Hatherleigh, acquired a neighbouring business to expand its warehouse storage and, most recently, invested £200k in new equipment to sustain its rapid growth. The expansion of its warehouse has created more space for staff to socially distance, and the business has operated throughout the pandemic with staff safety as the priority. 

All Jigsaw Puzzles is the trade division and leading brand of parent company Map Marketing Ltd., which currently employs 40 factory and warehouse workers in Hatherleigh and eight office staff in Exeter. The combined workforce caters to a huge trade and consumer base, supplying both bespoke jigsaw puzzles and the company's own range through e-commerce stores and retail. 

In the peak months of Lockdown, its jigsaw puzzle sales rose fourfold, and last year the whole business saw sales double compared to 2019. This year has started strongly with the first six months’ sales continuing this trend. To meet this increased demand, last year production quadrupled from an average of 50,000 to 200,000 jigsaws a year. Sales of its own-brand puzzles, launched in 2015, will exceed £500k this year for the first time.

Brian O’Donnell, Managing Director of All Jigsaw Puzzles and Map Marketing, says: “As a direct result of our recent growth, we are investing in three areas: People, Premises and Machinery. Our goal this year is to match last year’s turnover. We don’t want to have had this big growth during the pandemic and then head back to where we were. We want to build on it. The jigsaw puzzle side of the business now accounts for 85% of what we do, so it makes sense to re-orientate and use the All Jigsaw Puzzles brand more often.”

In the past 18 months the company has:

• Expanded its workforce by recruiting local people who had lost jobs in hospitality and tourism and by bringing on temps as permanent members of the team 
• Launched a Lean Manufacturing Apprenticeship Scheme to support homegrown talent within the company and offer all staff opportunities to progress - 10 full-time employees are now working towards an NVQ level 2
• Increased its footprint in Hatherleigh by 50% after taking on two new units, including an adjacent garage as its dispatch warehouse
• Invested in new machinery to produce planet-friendly, fully recyclable boxes in-house and to scale up production of its own-brand, hand-finished jigsaw puzzles 

Marketing Director Cynthia Yeoh says, “I’ve never seen growth like this in an established company. We were already working towards our goal of becoming a mainstream player in the UK jigsaw puzzle market - the pandemic has fast-tracked our evolution from a mapping company to a leading jigsaw puzzle company selling worldwide. It’s propelled our business plan five years ahead. Although it’s been stressful, we are riding the wave of success by planning for the future and investing heavily in the business, including the purchase of a massive machine costing over £100k that’s due to arrive this month. ”

Pam Hunt from Wales is one of the company’s biggest fans and has been a regular customer throughout the pandemic. She says, “My son came across the company one day and said to me ‘You like your jigsaw puzzles, Mum. These look great.’  Now I only ever buy from All Jigsaw Puzzles. He had a personalised jigsaw made for me of my youngest grandchild. I put it together with my granddaughter and have it framed on my wall. I have six grandchildren and I’d like to have a jigsaw puzzle of each of them.”

Josie Lovelock works in Customer Services in Hatherleigh and is among the first round of employees to benefit from the company’s new Lean Manufacturing Apprenticeship Scheme. Josie says, “I’ve worked here since 2016 and now, through the Apprenticeship Scheme, I’m learning all about the production processes involved in making jigsaws and how to improve quality and reduce costs. Until the pandemic, I’d never done a jigsaw myself. I got into them when people were isolating because my Nanna is jigsaw-obsessed. I agree with our customers - they really do save your sanity. We always have a jigsaw on the go at work in our dispatch warehouse. It’s something we can do together as a team.”

Managing Director Brian O’Donnell adds, “I love the fact that we’re the biggest employer in Hatherleigh at the moment with a great sense of community among our workforce. You get big pluses from that. As a result of the on-the-job training being delivered through our apprenticeship scheme, we are now getting ideas from the factory floor to further improve our efficiency and reduce wastage. That’s the culture I want to build here - a shared venture, a shared responsibility - with an important place in the local community.”