Our Story: How Bex and Josh Built Cookies and Koalas from a Rural Essex Studio
Cookies and Koalas was founded in late 2022 by Bex and Josh, a UK-and-Australia couple who met at a Canadian summer camp in 2017. Every product is designed, printed, made and packed by hand at their studio in rural Essex, and the brand name is a nod to the two very different countries, and cookie jars and koalas, that brought them together.
If you've come from our brand overview, Why Cookies and Koalas Is the UK's Trusted Home for Personalised Gifts and Trophies, this article goes one level deeper into who's actually behind the brand, and why that matters if you're trusting us with a wedding order or a corporate trophy.
How Did Cookies and Koalas Begin?
Bex and Josh met in the summer of 2017, working together at a Canadian summer camp. It should have been one of those summer romances that fizzles out once everyone flies home, especially given Josh was heading back to Australia and Bex to the UK. Instead, the two spent a year sending each other personalised gifts, video-calling across the time difference, and flying back and forth between continents, until Josh made the move to the UK permanently in 2018 so they could finally live in the same country.
That long-distance stretch is where the business really started, even though neither of them knew it at the time. All those small, thoughtful gifts they'd sent to keep the relationship alive taught them exactly what a personalised present means to the person receiving it, and to the person who chose it. By late 2022, that instinct had turned into an actual studio: Cookies and Koalas, based in rural Essex, making personalised gifts and, later, trophies and corporate awards for customers across the UK.
What Does the Name Cookies and Koalas Actually Mean?
It's not a random pairing of cute words. "Cookies" nods to Bex's Britishness, and "Koalas" to Josh's Australian roots, two symbols of the countries either side of the love story that built the brand. It's a small detail, but it's one that tends to click for customers once they know it, and it's a fair summary of what the business is: two very different starting points, brought together into one small studio.
Why Is Everything Made In-House at Our Essex Studio?
Every order that leaves Cookies and Koalas has been designed, printed, made and packed by the same small team, in the same studio, surrounded by Essex farmland. Nothing is outsourced to a third-party printer or a drop-shipper. That matters for a few practical reasons:
| Stage | What happens in-house | Why it matters to customers |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Personalisation requests are checked and laid out by hand | Names, dates and wording are proofed before anything is printed |
| Items are printed on-site, not sent to an external supplier | Faster turnaround, fewer handoffs where mistakes creep in | |
| Make | Gift bags, boxes, photo gifts and trophies are assembled in the studio | Consistent quality across every order, not just the first batch |
| Pack | Fragile items like acrylic photo blocks and trophies are packed by the team who made them | Whoever packed it knows exactly how delicate it is |
It's also why, when something does need fixing, whether that's a wording correction or a query on a corporate order, it tends to get sorted directly by Bex or Josh rather than through a scripted support process. You can read genuine examples of that in What Our Customers Say: Real Cookies and Koalas Reviews.
What Values Have Guided the Business Since Late 2022?
- Personalisation done properly: Free personalisation isn't an upsell here, it's the whole point of the business, born out of two people who understood what a thoughtful, specific gift actually means.
- Care over volume: The studio has grown from personalised gift bags and boxes into photo gifts, wedding ranges, and acrylic, crystal and resin trophies, but growth hasn't meant handing production over to someone else.
- Straightforward customer service: If something's wrong, the answer is to fix it, not to hide behind policy. That's easier to promise when you're a small, hands-on team than when you're a large seller working through outsourced production.
- Honesty in reviews: Genuine feedback, including the occasional four-star or a customer's own mistake on a personalisation request, is shown rather than filtered out, because it's a more accurate picture than an all five-star wall would be.
What Does Being a Small, Family-Run Brand Mean for Customers?
In practice, it means there's a real, named person behind every order, not a call centre. If you're buying a gift for a wedding, a sympathy gift, or a corporate trophy for an annual presentation, that matters more than it might for a cheaper, lower-stakes purchase, because there's less room for error and more reason to want someone accountable if something needs adjusting.
It also means the business grows slowly and deliberately. Cookies and Koalas started with gift bags and boxes and has expanded into trophies, corporate awards and wedding gifting because customers asked for it, not because a bigger company acquired a product line. For customers, that translates into a brand that's easy to reach, easy to hold accountable, and unlikely to change hands or change standards without warning.
Every gift and trophy is designed, printed, made and packed in-house by Bex and Josh's team at our studio in Chelmsford, Essex, with free personalisation included as standard.
Browse Personalised Gifts and TrophiesFAQs (People Also Ask)
Who founded Cookies and Koalas?
Cookies and Koalas was founded by Bex and Josh, a couple who met in 2017 and started the business together in late 2022, working from their studio in rural Essex.
When did Cookies and Koalas start?
The business started in late 2022, after Bex and Josh had spent several years sending each other personalised gifts during a long-distance relationship between the UK and Australia.
Where is the Cookies and Koalas studio based?
The studio is based in rural Essex, surrounded by farmland, where every product is designed, printed, made and packed by hand.
Why is the business called Cookies and Koalas?
The name combines a nod to Bex's UK roots (cookies) and Josh's Australian roots (koalas), reflecting the two countries and the relationship that led to the business being founded.
Is Cookies and Koalas a family-run business?
Yes. Cookies and Koalas is run by co-founders Bex and Josh, with every order handled by their small in-house team rather than outsourced to a third party.
The Story Behind Every Order
Every gift bag, keepsake box, photo gift and trophy that leaves the Cookies and Koalas studio carries a bit of that original story: two people from opposite sides of the world, learning what a personalised gift really means, and building a business around getting that right for everyone else too.
Want the fuller picture? Read our brand overview, Why Cookies and Koalas Is the UK's Trusted Home for Personalised Gifts and Trophies, see what customers say in What Our Customers Say: Real Cookies and Koalas Reviews, or find out Why Choose Cookies and Koalas: Handmade Quality, Personalisation and Care in Every Order.