19/12/12

Kent-designed laundry egg washes up at Tesco

by business editor Trevor Sturgess

A designed-in-Kent laundry egg backed by Queen of Clean Kim Woodburn could clean up in the UK's biggest supermarket chain.

Tesco has signed a deal with Ecoegg inventor and entrepreneur Rob Knight, from Penenden Heath, Maidstone, that will see the egg-shaped washing products trialled in more than 80 stores.

The product, made in Britain and assembled on the Isle of Sheppey, is already selling well in Lakeland shops.

Sales are expected to jump with the latest Tesco deal - worth £100,000 a year - and new contracts with Argos and online retailer Amazon.

Kim, who is starring in pantomime this Christmas and is pictured left, unveiled the Lakeland deal in the Tunbridge Wells store. She will be promoting the Tesco deal when it starts on January 27.

Mr Knight and his business partner Dawn White spent four years developing an egg that would be more green and suit people with skin allergies.

They previously outsourced manufacturing to China, but brought it back to the UK.

Mr Knight said the Tesco deal would safeguard jobs at the firm's offices in Larkfield and an assembly plant on the Isle of Sheppey.

"I am delighted that the product I invented with my business partner over five years ago will now be on sale in the UKs biggest retailer," he said. "We are obviously up against the big boys, like Procter and Gamble and Unilever, with their huge advertising spends, but we are not frightened by that. 

"The ecoegg team will all be working incredibly hard to ensure that the trial goes well."

Mr Knight added: "Kim agreeing to endorse us has made a huge difference to our business. Others wouldn't take us seriously so we needed the credibility that she has given us."