Success for Scottish Specialist Beds Seller

A business that helps families of disabled children travel more easily has doubled its turnover and moved into new premises after receiving specialist support from Scotland’s Business Gateway.

Safe Place Beds was founded by Lucy Todd after she struggled to find suitable travel bed options for her son CJ, who has complex additional needs including epilepsy and autism. CJ has a specialist bed in the home, but when he outgrew a travel cot it became increasingly difficult to go on holiday or visit relatives.

She searched online for solutions and what she found was bulky, heavy, complicated and expensive. She found the American website for Safe Place Beds, which are compact, affordable beds for children with additional needs.

The Safe Place Bed provided the perfect solution, but shipping from America was expensive and Lucy saw a gap in the market. She contacted the owners of Safe Place Beds and asked if she could distribute in the UK. They took a chance on her and said yes.  

The lightweight, compact and easy-to-assemble beds are designed for children aged between 3-13 years old with conditions like autism, Angelman syndrome, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, epilepsy, Smith Magenis syndrome and a wide range of chromosomal conditions.

Since 2024, Lucy has been able to significantly scale up the business with Business Gateway’s East Renfrewshire Accelerator programme, which provided expert guidance across a range of areas including marketing, social media, GDPR, shipping, online marketplaces, HR, moving premises, business planning and access to funding. Turnover has doubled for the business since it started on the Accelerator programme.

“My journey with Safe Place Beds Ltd has been about helping people like me,” said Lucy.

“I know what a difference peace of mind makes. The East Renfrewshire Accelerator programme has been amazing for me. I’ve spent a lot of time with other people who are running businesses, received fantastic training, and always had someone from Business Gateway on hand to discuss things with.”

To find out more about Safe Place Beds visit https://www.safeplacebedseu.com/ or Business Gateway visit https://bgateway.com.