Our story
Our story
Spreading smiles since 2017
Every smile counts.
We like to think every smile counts, which is why we make sending a Smile Box gift quick, easy, personalised and most importantly, affordable.
Sharing Affordable Smiles Since 2017!
Smile Box was founded in late 2017 when the founders wanted to send a small something to a friend, but discovered there was little available in affordable gifts to send to someone for when the thought counts more than the item itself.ย Sure its easy to find expensive and exciting gift boxes but what if you want to send a note to a friend with a little something to spruce it up?ย Thatโs the niche that Smilebox was founded to fill.
Originally starting as a side-project in the corner of their tiny one-bedroom unit in Auckland Smilebox today operates from a warehouse in the Bay of Plenty shipping tens of thousands of Smile Boxes every year.
Todayโs proud owners are Matt and Jo - we have decades of experience in customer service and are excited to take the Smilebox brand into the future with new products in the pipeline and a focus on speedy delivery and spreading smiles as far and wide as we can!
Founders' Story
After starting Smilebox in their one bedroom flat in 2017, Hannah & Tom opted in early 2018 for a life-style change and made the big shift to the other end of the country to base themselves amongst the lakes and snow-capped mountains of Lake Hฤwea (near Wฤnaka).
During 2018 to 2020, Smile Box operated from a spare bedroom within their home in Lake Hฤwea, with team members coming into the house to fulfil orders and the posties picking up sometimes hundreds of packages a day from their front door. The business was at this time still very much a side-gig with both Hannah and Tom still working their separate day jobs.
With the arrival of their son, Lochie, in late 2020, along with Lucy, their crazy-energetic border-collie, Hannah & Tom knew that things had to change.In early 2021, Hannah & Tom decided it was time to give Smile Box a proper 'push' and to try make the business more than just "something on the side".
They made the big decision to leave the security of their day jobs and moved the business out of home and into dedicated commercial premises in Wฤnaka. They were now working on the business full-time, alongside the rest of the amazing Smile Box team.
Within months, the team tripled in size and Smile Boxes were being sent thick and fast around NZ and beyond. It was a big year!
2021 also saw the launch of Smile Box's Raise a Smile charitable fund - raising money to help charitable causes & organisations around the country.
In early 2022 (less than a year after moving into their first commercial space), Hannah & Tom had no choice but to move Smile Box into bigger premises, as they had simply outgrown the existing space!
The new premises (this time a proper warehouse!) is setting the stage for the next phase of growth, which includes more products (now that there's the space to store them) and also looking at international growth into Australia and beyond.
Thank you!
From all of us at Smile Box HQ, thank you for helping spread the smiles!
Our Charitable Fund
Raise a Smile
With every Smile Box sent, a small portion of the proceeds goes into our Raise a Smile charitable fund.
This fund then gets donated throughout the year to various charitable causes & organisations around New Zealand.
Humbled by feedback ๐
Over our five years of spreading smiles we've been humbled with amazing feedback from all walks of life, including from many awesome Kiwi businesses, which tells us we must be doing something right!
Click below to view some of our 8,000+ five-star reviews.
Let customers speak for us
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Contact us
If you have any feedback, comments or questions, feel free to get in touch with the team.