LOCAL MUM VISITS DOWNING STREET
Lyndsey Young Count on it

Like many truly entrepreneurial individuals, Bottesford-based designer Lyndsey Young’s product idea grew out of necessity. Her Count On It® labels offer an innovative and unique solution to food storage, enabling households to simply and safely track the freshness of opened and stored food.

Her innovative approach has resulted in a flourishing business and an invitation to an event at Downing Street to celebrate the success of Britain's small & medium sized businesses.

The event was to review how the Government has assisted SMEs through the downturn and examine how business and Government can work together moving forwards as the economy improves.  It gives Young a chance to share her views on business support services and explain how she has benefited from accessing support and advice through Business Link.

As a mother to two young boys, Young was always throwing food away as she couldn’t remember when it had been opened. She came up with the idea for a simple scratch off label that would allow busy households like hers to keep track of when food had been opened and allow an informed decision of whether it should be thrown away, without resulting to the taste test.

Having come up with the concept she contacted Business Link for help to get the business off the ground.  She then won £15,000 on Channel 4’s Deal or No Deal which was a great boost and allowed Young to move things forward more quickly and carry out vital market research into the product.

“I distributed samples among quite a wide range of people and asked them to complete a detailed questionnaire. All this helped me to ensure the product that I was designing and that I would eventually manufacture was something that people actually needed and wanted. I had my first batch manufactured in April 2008 and started trading online through the dedicated website www.count-on-it.co.uk. It was an instant hit.

“One area where I needed specialist advice was in registering trademarks and patents for Count On It®. My Business Adviser put me in touch with people who gave me advice on protecting my ideas and production. In fact, my Business Adviser has been a great support throughout, providing access to opportunities, information and advice that I would not otherwise have been aware of.”

Since launching Count On It® labels, Lakeland and Betterware stock the labels and the popularity of the product is growing through word of mouth and online via Twitter and the dedicated Count On It® website. Young has already secured a distribution partner in America, where the product has been received exceptionally well and she has sold as far a field as Korea and Australia.

In addition to this, Count On It® labels have received glowing endorsements from celebrity mums Amanda Holden and Angela Griffin, as well as green/eco advocate Janey Lee Grace.

And it’s not just for food that the labels are proving useful; Young admits that the feedback she’s received has been that people are using them for medicines, contact lenses, cooker hood filters, anything and anywhere that a reminder of the date is needed.

“What’s good about this product is that it has so many potential uses and the opportunity to branch out into new products is immense. The Count On It® brand is one that I’m keen to develop further, extending the supply chain and entering into new markets.”