Is The Wool Couture Company Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Gelder, working out of Barnsley, asked for £50,000 in exchange for a 30 percent stake, a sizeable amount of equity that pointed to a founder who wanted real support to take a niche craft item into mainstream shops.

Touker Suleyman and Tej Lalvani backed the deal together, covering the full amount between them. Suleyman's fashion retail background paired with Lalvani's brand-building experience from Vitabiotics, a fair combination for a company hoping to jump from craft fairs to the high street.

Everyone stuck at home during lockdown seemed to pick up a craft project, and this business caught that wave at exactly the right moment, with online orders climbing sharply through those years.

The kit range now covers embroidery, needle felting, macrame, weaving, crochet and knitting, on sale at John Lewis, Ryman, Dunelm and Marks and Spencer as well as smaller independent shops, a footprint well beyond what it had at the time of the pitch.

National retailers do not take a chance on a supplier lightly, they want proof of consistent quality and enough stock on hand to keep shelves full, so landing this many big names points to a company that has genuinely matured its operations, not just its product line.

Selling through both a website and department store shelves reaches two different buyers, the dedicated hobbyist ordering a specific kit for a project, and the casual shopper grabbing one as a present while wandering a craft aisle, which spreads the risk more evenly than depending on either group alone.