A SOUTH Lakeland firm has boosted its business thanks to financial backing from Distinctly Cumbrian - the countywide project which aims to enhance sales and production of Cumbrian products.

Cartmel Valley Game Supplies has upgraded its processing facilities, using capital grant support to apply a white resin coating and to waterproof electrics throughout the processing rooms, which mean a much faster cleaning down time and even better hygiene during preparation.

The business was started 12 years ago by former Holker Hall Estate gamekeeper Jonathan Stott and his wife Susan, when they began preparing pheasants and other game for local people. Next a few butchers started placing orders. It really was as simple as that, and now they have four employees, plus themselves, all busy in this thriving business.

"We don't really want to get much bigger," said Jonathan, who spends all day on Tuesdays calling customers for orders. "I take the order, and I deliver it personally, which builds up a tremendous bond between us and our customers. We think that's very important to our business ethos, and why we are doing so well.

"Who wants to talk to a faceless voice on the phone? We buy local, we sell local, and we are local folk, so you can't get better service than that."

As much game as possible is sourced locally, while specialist products like pate, duck breasts, and duck fat (used for cooking) and wild boar are bought in from France. When in season, they supply 1,000 pheasants each week; 200 wild rabbits per week (all year round) 200 wild pigeon; wild duck, woodcock, venison - Red and Roe deer, all from Cumbrian estates.

In fish, they supply sea bass, sea trout, wild trout, and salmon is procured from the traditional half-nets on the Solway coast. They sell 200 sides of smoked salmon each week, all year round. All the game and fish is processed on the premises.

The business has some 150 customers all over Cumbria, including top hotels and leading local butchers. Because most of their product is fresh, they landed on the idea of creating a smoke house mainly to extend the shelf-life of their products. A small former byre was converted to a smoke house with two smoking units, and now smoked products account for half their business. For wood, they use beech chippings which give a slightly sweeter flavour; all the beech wood is also sourced from the Holker Estate. Jonathan said: "The new coating in our preparation rooms has meant we can take on another employee as it's easier to run, and we can now process the game and fish faster.

"It's really helped us to get where we want to be, and we can now clean down with a steam hose between products much faster than before."

l For details about grant aid available from Distinctly Cumbrian, contact Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency, tel 01768-891555 or log on to: www.crea.co.uk.