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Entrepreneur sells pumps to the stars
A self-taught computer whiz has chucked in his mouse to sell pumps to the stars.
Andrew Whittaker, 37, left his IT job to set up an online company at home supplying plimsolls and sneakers to school pupils.
But it was when Endemol, the producers of Channel 4's Big Brother got in touch, that the business really took off.
Andrew has since supplied the show with dozens of pairs of slip on black Gusset plimsolls for contestants to wear when performing challenges.
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He even posted off a pair of children's size 7s for 2ft 8ins American actor Verne Troyer during his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in January.
Since then Leeds's Grand Theatre has taken an order for 12 pairs of black slip-on Gussets for Opera North, and hair specialists Vidal Sassoon has snapped up 25 pairs of white lace-ups for its student hair stylists and colourists.
Even transport company Eddie Stobart has bought 37 pairs of pumps for staff.
"We started just selling small sizes for school children, then I started to look around at the different colours and styles," said Andrew.
"I spotted a trend for adult sized Gusset plimsolls which really took off with teenagers.
"Then Endemol got in touch. We supplied them and they listed us on the Big Brother website, which really helped."
But Andrew's secret weapon has been his primary school teacher wife Debbie, who spotted the initial gap in the market.
She noticed that children often damaged, lost or outgrew their school pumps and parents struggled to find sizes.
Finally the Whittakers gave the business plan a shot in March of last year, and today Andrew is earning more than he did running a car park company's website.
"We set up the website after we had come home from shopping in town one Saturday last March," Debbie said.
"Andrew set up the website that night, registered the domain name and we had our first order the next day. We didn't have any stock so spent two weeks getting supplies and it snowballed from there."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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