Behind the Business | Olly's Box

Olly’s Box is Australia's original and largest dog subscription box. Delivering 4-6 items that are hand-picked and tailored to your dog every month. It was founded in 2013, right here in Brisbane, by Jessica and Drewe Apps. Olly’s Box was born not out of a love for business, but out of a desire for something different.

It began with Olly. Olly is a 6 year old Maltese Shih Tzu cross. Olly loves toys, and his humans love to buy them for him. There came a point that they couldn’t find anything new in pet stores. All of which tend to stock the same few items- balls, rope tugs and low quality stuffed toys. They really struggled to find interactive and enriching toys for Olly, that are of a high quality, that didn’t break the bank. So not only was Olly bored, Drewe and Jess were too!

They assumed that just like them, Aussie dog parents must be bored of the same old items and they set out to change the game. From the office of their home the Olly’s Box team began to ship the fun and unique things they found for Olly to dogs across Australia. The ‘pupstomers’ loved them, and they quickly outgrew home-operation. Using all spare rooms inside the house, as well as the entire garage, to store the items they had found. It was about 12 months in that their house was so overrun that a move to a commercial warehouse was needed.

In 2018 they are celebrating their fifth year in business and send Olly’s Boxes to hundreds of lucky dogs across Australia each month with their usual monthly delivery, their Barkday Box and their Puppy Boxes. Jess and Drewe are the sole forces behind Olly’s Box, but Olly has proved unhelpful while packing, so they do employ an extra set of hands once per month to help them pack their large monthly orders.

“We absolutely couldn’t do it without our customers and are so grateful for all the other crazy dog peeps like us,” Drewe said. Some of these pupstomers are so loyal they have literally been with them since day one.

Jess and Drewe have an incredibly strong focus on finding new, innovative products and love to support other small businesses in the process. Delivering pet parents a product they may not have found on their own. They are very proud to have worked with some local businesses in their starting stages, such as Savourlife.

The future of Olly’s Box is looking bright, with plans to introduce the world to Olly’s favourite things with international shipping options to New Zealand and Singapore. The team loves to support the dog loving community, and plan to increase their community involvement even further with additional charity work in the coming year. Like they were from day one, Jess, Drewe and Olly are on the lookout for more unique products, and have even toyed with the idea of producing some of their very own. And just in case the Olly’s Box team isn’t going to be busy enough with that, Olly is going to be a big brother! A big congratulations to Drewe, Jess and Olly!

Olly's Box www.ollysbox.com.au Instagram | Facebook You are reading Part 2 of our Behind the Business series! Read our Introduction and Part One!