Engineer hopes invention helps him to clean up
0 Comments | South Wales Evening Post, Jul 28, 2010 | by RUPERT HALL
AN engineer from Neath is hoping to clean up with a unique shower bracket.
Plumbing and heating engineer Stuart Gibby had been looking to China to manufacture his product.
But the 40-year-old has decided to research options closer to home, and has secured a manufacturer, packager, graphic designer and web designer within Wales.
Mr Gibby’s product will now be made by Linear Plastics in Pontypridd.
It will be packaged by Platt Packaging, based at the Rassau Industrial Estate in Ebbw Vale.
Design for the artwork on the packaging is being carried out by Swansea’s Graphic Realm Ltd.
Web Mr Gibby is also working with former Neath-based web designers The Sheep Boys on an official website to market his shower bracket.
He has received funding from Neath Port Talbot Council to pay for trials of the product.
“The only thing we have had to source outside of Wales is the chroming,” said Mr Gibby. “There are only two companies in the UK who specialise in it.”
Mr Gibby has chosen DMS, in Kidderminster, which currently works with clients including Bentley and Land Rover, to carry out the chroming.
He said: “This product is supporting jobs in Wales.”
Mr Gibby will be primarily selling his product online, but he has also been in talks with department store Leekes with a view to marketing it in-store.
He is currently still running his own plumbing and heating engineering business HPS, in London Road, Neath, but hopes his invention will become his sole source of income.
He said: “It is my intention to sell some products and then use that as leverage to encourage investment from the dragons on Dragon’s Den. They could open doors for me that I could only dream about opening.”
Mr Gibby is also working on further inventions which he is hoping will win funding from the Assembly.