After being made redundant, Matt Stockdale developed his oven-cleaning product into a successful company called HomePride with a turnover of more than £4 million

After being made redundant, Matt Stockdale developed his oven-cleaning product into a successful company called HomePride with a turnover of more than £4 million.

Where did you get the idea?
I first thought about starting a cleaning catalogue company and came across an oven gel, which I developed into the product we have now.

How did you get funding?
We were very fortunate to get HBOS on board and secured the Small Firms Loans Guarantee scheme through them. [Under the scheme] we secured two tranches
of £50,000.

How did you promote the product?
We went on home shopping channel QVC, and were then approached by a cleaning catalogue. We’ve since advertised the product by sponsoring The Bill and The Trisha Goddard Show.

How did you get it in shops?
I first approached Tesco, and they said “no thanks”. I got a similar response elsewhere. In the end, I convinced the buyer at Tesco to let me send the product to his family
to try. He invited me back and they put us in 30 stores. We’ve grown ever since.

Where do you want the company to go next?
We are currently looking to expand into Europe and the US. We have just secured an account with Wal-Mart to sell as a licensed vendor in their stores – a real gold nugget!