Our Story
It All Started With £1...
What We're All About
I’m Lee, the founder of KLAS UK. This is the story of how we came to be and how one purchase of a 1:64 scale Matchbox model car as a child turned into a passion and in turn that passion turned into the business it is today.
As with most collectors, it all started when when my mother bought me a £1 Matchbox car to keep me happy (and quiet) when we were out shopping as a small child. I must have been a nightmare on shopping trips as my collection of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars grew and grew.
As the years passed and toddlers turn into children, children turn into young adults and they in turn become adults… and as a general rule, adults have more money than toddlers and this is when a few cars turn turn into a collection and then a collection turns into an obsession.
To earn money and to pay the bills and fuel the collection, I spent 26 years in the retail sector as a store manager for a large catalogue shop (that no longer uses catalogues). In 2019, due to Covid19, the High Street changed dramatically as shops closed to customers and only ‘essential’ stores were allowed to trade… long story short, I was made redundant! It was scary times. Retail was all I knew… Well, retail and collecting 1:64 scale cars.
The Start of Something KLAS
I’d started KLAS a few years earlier so that I could become an Amazon reseller. KLAS may seem like a strange business name but it was named after the most important thing to me… The family!
Keeley is my rock that supports me pushes me forward. Lee is me! Amelie is the eldest daughter and then there’s Sophie. KLAS!
Since starting the company, 2 more ‘bundles of joy’ came to be. The boys, Lincoln and Austin. Is it just a coincidence that they are named after car manufacturers? Maybe 😉
Being made redundant, having the family to support and not knowing what to do is when I thought “why not do what you love?” So KLAS UK was revived and collecting cars and supporting collectors became the focus.
I started thinking about what I wanted as a collector for my collection? I had bought a few card protectors over the years but nine had really ticked all the boxes for me. Some were too thin, some too thick, others yellowed over time and some bend the cards on the corners or just looked a bit ugly. I decided that I would design my own cases, get them manufactured and see if other collectors liked them enough to buy some themselves. It was a huge risk as I’d never done anything like this before and, obviously it was going to cost money.
All I thought was ‘what if I messed it up’ or ‘What if people just didn’t want them?’ Keeley has always supported my crazy ideas (like when I decided I was going to be a professional drone pilot or that I was going to take up golf… and I currently have a expensive drone and top of the range golf clubs currently collecting dust in the loft) and this one was no different. She said to give it a go, so I did.
After 6 months of designing, tweaking, getting the prototype and re-designing and re-tweaking, the finished short card and long card cases finally arrived from the manufacturer… and they were perfect!
Crystal clear, not too thick, not too thin and the way they looked on the card made them look like all of my collection needed them! The KLAS Lip around the front window stopped those annoying little scratches and kept them clearer whilst at the same time providing extra strength to the edges that always seemed to get dented and dinged.
I sent some out to get some feedback from other collectors and EVERYONE loved them.
Now, after 10’s of thousands sold, customer satisfaction throught he roof and reinvesting into new cases with the KLAS logo embossed on the back so that no matter what you collect, we would have you covered.