It’s one of Dorset’s best-kept secrets yet has achieved phenomenal growth in its six-year existence with overseas sales accounting for around three quarters of its turnover.

Vault X has helped customers protect millions of trading cards with its premium quality binders, deck boxes and gaming accessories in a global market predicted to grow to near $132 billion by 2030.

Unfamiliar with trading cards?

Well think Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering or Poole’s very own Achroma.

Across the world tens of millions collect, and play, with the cards which are often worth a small fortune in themselves.

In its own words, Poole-based Vault X keeps the cards safe from ‘dinks, dents and scrapes’.

Co-Founders Peter Morris (bottom right) and clockwise Ian Bailey, Gary Adams and Ben Perryman.

Co-founded in 2017 by Peter Morris, Gary Adams, Ian Bailey and Ben Perryman, it has grown from three products to the current 111 – with around 45 new products planned for this year.

Turnover hit £1 million within two years of launch and has since increased to £5.9m in 2022 with Vault X on course for a near-doubling to £10 million this year.

The majority of sales are through Amazon with around ten per cent via its own website.

Products are also available through about 130 wholesalers in the UK, both online and physical stores.

Peter, CEO, said the idea for the company came after he got chatting to Gary and Ian about their trading card website, mtgvault.com.

All three live in Poole.

He said: “I asked if they did a physical product, and they didn’t, so I thought ‘OK, let’s have a go at doing one’.

“They already had a captive audience using their website that we could sell to which was a start.

“From my previous business in lighting, the obvious place to sell them was Amazon.

“The first order we placed was a pallet from China.

“It came to Gary’s house and we put it in the garage and from there it just exploded.

“We thought we’d sell 20 products a day and we quickly reached that.

“That first order was £20,000 and we each put in £5,000 – that’s how we seeded the company.

“From then on every order we doubled and tripled.

“There are two facets to trading cards – the collectors and the players.

“The collectors have a binder, like a stamp album or the old cigarette cards, and the players a deck box.

“We’re now known for our premium products but the first we did were standard ones with plastic folders and plastic deck boxes.

“It was a low price point and a very standard range but we very quickly became the number one seller on Amazon.”

Today around half of Vault X’s sales are to America, 25 per cent in the UK and 25 per cent to the rest of Europe.

Peter, 37, said: “Our best-sellers are what we call Exo-Tec and then the standard stuff.

“We do everything you need to protect cards, from a pack of sleeves costing £3 all the way up to £35-£40 for one of the larger binders or large deck box.

“We try and come in and have a reasonable price point with the best quality we can get.

“We have a core range of seven colours and every quarter release a new colour which is only available on a limited run.

“If you’re a collector you might have quite a number of sets and be buying four binders a year so you might want four different colours.

“Nearly all our products are made in China but we’re looking to have some made in Japan and are in early talks with a Polish manufacturer.”

According to Marketstatsville, the global trading game card market was valued at $20.1 billion in 2021.

It is expected to grow to $131.8 billion by 2030, a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 26.5 per cent from 2022 to 2030.

Peter, who lives in Oakdale, Poole, and is married with two young daughters, said: “You have people my age with a bit of disposable income and a lot of fondness for Pokémon or Magic: The Gathering who are collecting the cards.

“It’s also a great hobby for children with the playing side.

“They teach children strategy and in some there’s a lot of maths.

“You have local game stores where they’re almost a cross between a shop and a youth club.

“Go to somewhere like LvL Up Gaming in Charminster on a Friday night when it’s Magic: The Gathering and you’ll have tables full of teenagers, all playing these games.

“It’s a safe space for the kids to go and hang out on a Friday and they’re doing something where they’re learning strategy.

“In America baseball cards are massive.

“The boomer generation are collecting those, the millennials collecting Pokémon and the kids are always coming in so the customer base is constantly refreshing.”

Vault X is one of the founding sponsors of the London Card Show, being held at Sandown Racecourse on April 22 and 23.

The company, which only has four employees, has also just taken on Ryan Herd, formerly Head of eCommerce and Digital at Geek Retreat, as eCommerce Manager.

Peter said future plans included targeting more heavily players as well as collectors.

He said: “We’ve always focused on the collectors, that’s the community that seems to have taken us to heart, but we’re now focusing on the players.

“The player base is larger in Magic: The Gathering and we want to tap into that.

“Our 45 completely new products include deck boxes with an accessories drawer which is novel to Vault X.

“I’ve also been concentrating on really pushing us into the trading card community for the last year.

“We want to make sure they feel something for the brand and identify us.

“We’re not just like one of the big legacy players who are faceless corporations.

“We are players and collectors ourselves.

“Would I ever think I’d be doing this with my life and Pokémon cards? Absolutely not.

“We came along at the time when there was a real boom in trading cards.

“Over Covid and lockdown people were looking for things they could do indoors and people were finding their collections up in their lofts.

“We really saw an explosion in popularity and we haven’t seen it slow down.

“Now Disney are coming in with their new trading card game called Lorcana.

“They’ve put millions into that and obviously Disney’s IP (intellectual property) is endless.

“I think this year will be really interesting for us with new products and, hopefully, getting to that £10m turnover.

“We’re in America through Amazon and Walmart; we’re in the EU and we’re in the UK.

“The next area for us is Australia and Japan and then South America.”

• vaultx.com