Brad Young and Emily Lamb admit their feet have hardly touched the ground during recent years.

It’s been anything but a piece of cake to build their company to a near £1 million annual turnover.

How it began: Brad and Emily with daughters Mila and Olivia.

Year on year growth has been up to 200 per cent.

But, actually, it is cake which is responsible for their success to date.

Because Poole-based Prop Options Ltd designs, manufactures and sells a range of cake stands, tier separators and baking accessories.

It celebrates its fifth anniversary later this year.

Around seven years ago Brad and Emily developed an idea which was to see them eventually quit their jobs and work together.

Their daughter, Mila, now eight, was having her first birthday cake smash.

It was there that photographer Karen Wiltshire described the difficulty in sourcing strong and reliable cake stands suitable for children’s photography.

At the time Brad, pictured left, was working as a carpenter at Sunseeker International after joining from school as an apprentice.

He said: “I designed and made a stand for Karen and it really grew from there.

“Her colleagues asked her where she got it and we’d make more.

“We started advertising on Etsy and eBay and got messages from customers asking for larger sizes.

“It was back to the drawing board and we had to beef everything up to make it stronger.

“Emily would paint it white, then before we sent it out we’d take a picture of it and do a new listing.

“Then someone would ask for a gold one, we’d paint it gold, do a picture and another listing.”

While Brad was employed during the day at Sunseeker, Emily, pictured right, worked nights, predominantly on reception in Accident & Emergency at Poole General Hospital.

Sharing childcare of their two young daughters between them the couple, who are business partners and also engaged, worked literally around the clock.

Brad said: “We were like passing ships.

“I’d made the stands the night before, sometimes working in our garage until 11pm and even beyond.

”Emily then painted the stands.

“It was like a conveyor.”

Emily gave up her job first to concentrate full-time on Prop Options followed by Brad.

She said: “Our range of stands quickly grew into an array of bespoke colours and sizes as we began to attract the attention of bakers and cake designers from within the very talented wedding and events industry.

“Before we knew what was happening, our stands were being sent around the globe creating the perfect pedestal for countless wedding cakes, each of which was as stunning as the next.”

In 2020, Prop Options took on an industrial unit, literally as Covid struck, and also their first team member.

Although weddings dried up because of lockdown restrictions the couple concentrated on product designs in preparation for the end of the pandemic.

Brad, 30, said: “Coming out of Covid our product lines have really gone off internationally.

“We now have more than 50 unique product lines, mainly in wood, acrylic or metal.

 “Last year, alone, we sent to 66 different countries.”

Emily, 31, added: “We focus on cake hardware such as cake stands and separators but have also invented cake tools.

“Basically anything around cake, or how to display a cake.

“We try to always be forward-thinking and design our own products and work with the customer.

“We’re very customer-led.”

Prop Options now employs eight people and operates from a 900 sq ft unit on the Holten Heath Trading Park.

It’s also started renting half of the unit opposite, filling up the space within three weeks.

The business was recently named Most Innovative Cake Stand Designers 2022 in the SME UK Enterprise Awards.

Brad said: “We’ve been able to grow so quickly because of sourcing suppliers of quality products at an affordable price which we pass on to our customers.”

Future plans include setting up production hubs in other countries, using influencer marketing and establishing a YouTube channel including dispensing ‘How to do it’ advice.

Despite the company’s growth the couple are determined to keep the personal touch.

Emily, who has singlehandedly built up the number of Instagram followers to more than 35,000, said: “We are really proud of the business but we don’t very often look up and reflect.

“The credit for how smoothly Prop Options runs is definitely down to the team and each person doing their role well.

“We’re just really lucky to have such a good team.”

• https://propoptions.co.uk/