Sales are soaring at an innovative and hugely successful west Cumbrian business which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Chimney Sheep has just moved into bigger premises in Workington and is recruiting more staff.

In 2012, when Sally Philips first started selling her chimney draught excluder made of Herdwick wool from a small workshop in Cockermouth she had no idea what a success it would be.

Her award-winning product is now sold all over the world and the company is busier than ever.

It has just moved into what used to be the bowling alley and is looking to expand its 10-strong workforce.

"The new venue is great," said Sally. "We have a big warehouse with office space, before this we were working out of two buildings and ferrying everything between the two.

"We have solar panels and are cleaner and greener. Since the energy price rises we have had so many orders - our Chimney Sheep saves five per cent on heating bills, and are recruiting another four or five people."

The company has bought 100,000kgs of Herdwick wool over the years and sold 160,000 Chimney Sheep draught excluders.

"I set off not knowing how much demand there would be and not knowing much about business," said Sally.

"It's been tiring but I feel I have developed personally and the business has grown. It's been an adventure, with highs and lows, awards and commercial successes.

"It's great to have such a good team and we're really pleased to be able to use a local raw material, create something from that and generate new products and incomes."

The company has won many awards, including a Queen’s Award for Enterprise earlier this year, and produces a range of wool products.

Twenty per cent of its profits go into a community interest company Sally set up in 2019, Buy Land Plant Trees.

Since 2019, they have acquired 180 acres of land and planted 70,000 trees.

"There are about 11 million chimneys out there in the UK. If every single one of these had a Chimney Sheep fitted, we could save 2,337,511 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent CO2 captured by planting 5,493,020.277 acres of trees," said Sally.

"It would also save a total of about £327,704,960 in energy bills – annually!"

Sally wants to sell more planet-friendly products and plant many more trees. They will be planting 100,000 during the next planting season on Low Fell, overlooking Loweswater.

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