An ex-Army Royal Engineer and a mobile coffee shop owner are hoping to clean-up with their new business venture – literally.
Neighbours Daniel Hawkins and Chris Watkins, from Abertridwr, have started offering outside cleaning services with their business External Restore.
The firm offers the cleaning of driveways, pathways, gutters, conservatories, decking and brickwork.
Mr Hawkins, 33, who spent seven years with the Royal Engineers, is hoping the new venture will be a success after he was made redundant from windscreen repairers Autoglass.
He explained: “I would have loved to have stayed with Autoglass as they were a great company, but I thought I would try something new.
“My neighbour Chris, who owns a mobile coffee business, was at a hotel when he spotted people cleaning the guttering. He did a bit of research and thought there could be some money to be made.
“I took my redundancy, utilised the funding from the Welsh Government and did some courses and the rest is history.”
Through some business networking, Mr Hawkins came into contact with business centre the Welsh Innovation Centre for Enterprise (ICE).
External Restore then successfully applied for the ICE 50 programme, which offers start-ups a paid-for place at the centre on Caerphilly Business Park.
The company has secured several commercial contracts, looking after major retail units, since beginning last year and is hoping to build its domestic customer base and take on staff in the coming months.
Mr Hawkins added: “Everyone says it is about customer service, but what we try and do is exceed customer expectations.”
For more information visit www.external-restore.co.uk or call 0800 612 8052.
• For more information on the ICE 50 scheme, visit www.welshice.org.