Teessiders get trolleyed in Russia

A Teesside firm is attracting interest from potential customers from as far afield as India and Russia after developing a product to make supermarket trolley rage a thing of the past.

Billingham-based Storage & Handling Equipment, SHE, has created a new shopping trolley model, the Sassy Shopper, which can be used by shoppers down small aisles and is specially designed to be lighter to push.

SHE calims that for retailers, the trolley is stronger and more durable than other models  and takes up less space when not being used.

The range was invented following three years of design, development and patenting work, and will be launched at the National Convenience Show at the NEC in Birmingham in April.

SHE’s inventive associate Martin Eberlein said: “We’re very excited to be bringing something new and better to the market of shopping trolleys.

“The invention was inspired by existing quality problems caused by poor design and inefficiencies in production, transportation and servicing of trolleys. Mentioning just one of the more severe problems, the industry has been lacking a standard, which the Sassy Shoppers now provides, to ensure that trolleys made by different manufacturers can nest and that the same spare parts fit onto them.

“Trolleys are used by everyone, everyday, but never noticed unless there is a severe problem so something new and different was overdue in my opinion.”

SHE’s sales director Lynn Brown said: “We’ve already had interest shown by manufacturers, distributors, and retailers in East Asia, India, Russia and Europe, all of whom benefit from this emerging trolley standard. Our existing customers have also shown a keen interest.

“We are also awaiting news on a potential three-year contract with a major global retailer and are now hard at work on new products for a family range of trolleys.”