Shoe in for Salford spin-out
A SHOE insole company that spun out of the University of Salford is about to launch its product to the wider public, after enjoying strong sales to the NHS and Premiership football clubs.
Biomech Technologies International, a spin-out of Salford’s School of Podiatry, which is split between the university, the department lecturers and Midlands-based materials company The Space Agency, was set up last February and started trading from the summer.
Its Foot Science Insole is already in use at several Premiership football clubs, including Everton, and is used in the NHS by hundreds of podiatrists and physiotherapists across the UK.
The team at Salford University designed the Foot Science Insole so that it provides extra support for the mid-foot section of the football boot and thus helps protect the shaft of the metatarsals. It is also used in the NHS to solve common foot complaints, with technology allowing insoles being fitted much more easily.
Dr Chris Nester, a director of the company and university lecturer, said: “The whole concept and design was for the health professionals market but now we have gone into the consumer market, having made some modifications to the material used in the consumer product.”
It has just launched a new website to attract interest from the wider general public, as well as from potential resellers. The insoles sell to the general public for £35 a pair.
Paul Lawless, who is managing director of The Space Agency and a director of Biomech, said: “The rapid acceptance of the devise from a clinical point of view has given us the confidence to springboard to the consumer side and do this.”
The company, which invested around £50,000 of director’s private funds in developing the product is in talks with the PGA about selling the product to customers at its golf education and training centres, and with a security and police equipment distribution company.
Biomech Technologies turned over around £40,000 in its first year but Mr Lawless said that half of those sales can be accounted for in the last two months and sales are growing month on month. He added that the company is expecting a turnover of £400,000 this financial year.
“Already 35 primary care trusts out of 165 are buying from us and the momentum through the NHS is growing quickly,” he said.
Mr Lawless added: “Although it has room to grow, the NHS will eventually only account for 10% of business, whereas at the moment it’s about 90%. We want the other 90% to come from consumers, serious sports people and sports rehabilitation.”
