A YEAR of travel-ling has inspired a Kendal daredevil to set up a new bus-iness.

Shaun Ellison — known for his ex-treme base jumping adventures — has set up Alexander and Sancto, importers and suppliers of premium tiles and natural stone.

His wife and busi-ness partner, Kerrie, believes that travels around Europe are behind the decision to open the firm.

She said: “We trav-elled across several countries, exper-iencing lots of diff-erent styles of home and culture, and we’ve tried to bring some of these influ-ences back with us.

“We’ve spent time in Italy and Spain, so we’ve seen that Italian and Spanish porcelain are the best quality.”

Mr Ellison prev-iously spent 15 years as managing direct-or of printing firm Sports Print before selling the family garment-printing business.

His base jumping exploits have seen him race Jeremy Clarkson on BBC’s Top Gear and surv-ive extreme condit-ions on Baffin Island in the Arctic.

Now with his feet back on the ground, the couple are to open a showroom at Kendal Business Park, off Appleby Road.