Spotty Otter brand to expand

A BARNSLEY firm that sells specialist children’s outdoor gear is looking to expand after securing £50,000 funding from South Yorkshire Investment Fund (SYIF).

The money will be used by Little Trekkers, a specialist e-commerce retailer of outdoor clothing and equipment for children, to help develop new brand – Spotty Otter.

Over the last six years Little Trekkers has gone from strength-to-strength after founders Stephanie Butterworth and Matthew Jones first identified that the children’s outdoor clothing and equipment market was not covered well by mail order and the internet.

They started from home but quickly needed more storage and a showroom and are now based near Penistone just outside Barnsley.

Last year they identified a change of direction was needed to ensure continued success.

Ms Butterworth said: “After analysing the market it was clear that there was increasingly more competition and we needed to maintain our uniqueness.

“It quickly became apparent that developing our own product range, which had the potential to become a brand in its own right, was the way forward. We knew what was missing from our market – high specification children’s outdoor wear – so we developed Spotty Otter to cover this gap.”

Spotty Otter has grown rapidly and is now sold across the country but to continue the development of the brand extra funding was required.

“Previously Little Trekkers had been purely subsidising the growth of Spotty Otter but we wanted them to stand alone as two separate companies so they could both move forward,” continued Ms Butterworth.

“Our bank has always been supportive of Little Trekkers but we are not an asset rich company and had reached the limits on what they could offer us.

“So, we approached SYIF to provide additional borrowing and support for the ongoing development of Spotty Otter in particular the design, development and manufacture of a lighter weight packable range of waterproofs.”

She added that although the company would have still gone ahead with the development of Spotty Otter, they would have been around two years behind the current position.

David Ward, investment manager at SYIF, said: “Spotty Otter is an exciting brand that has had a very clear business focus from the beginning.

“We are delighted to have been involved in its recent growth and development and see a really bright future ahead for both Little Trekkers and Spotty Otter.”

SYIF can provide seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments ranging from £15,000 to £2.5m specifically to help small and medium businesses meet the gaps in funding they need for growth and development.