Two school friends have launched a new web-based business selling British-made farm and garden machinery.
Business partners, Sam Elliss and Ed Morron, who met seven years ago when they both studied at Suffolk One sixth form college in Ipswich, have launched Zaros Machinery, specialising in agricultural, horticultural and garden machinery.
They came up with the idea a year ago, having had difficulty finding a trailer to pull behind a tractor to collect firewood, and researched products and purpose-built their own website.
Mr Elliss said: "The idea for the business came from that. We launched three months ago and it is going very well. We are quite hopeful.
"We have 200 products on the website so far, and another 200 to go on, before we approach any more manufacturers.
"There have been sales across England and as far as Wales so far. We are quite excited by the whole thing."
The buiness partners came up with a catchy name for their company and designed their website together, helped by the fact that Mr Morron is a website designer. Their site is a fast and easy platform to use.
Mr Elliss added: "We could have taken the easy route and bought a pre-built website template, but instead we committed a year of development time to create a bespoke website, unrivalled in the machinery industry."
Zaros currently specialises in machinery designed to be towed behind a compact tractor, quad bike or ride-on lawn mowers.
Products range from trailers and water bowsers to mowers and grass care systems, with equipment for sports grounds large garden owners and smallholders.
They are looking to source mainly British-made products, Mr Elliss said, with suppliers close to home in Suffolk and as far as Northern Ireland.
"We want to buy British wherever we can. We think it is the right thing to do, to support local companies.
"I don't think Brexit is going to affect anything we do. We will be looking for good quality products, rather than cheap imports."
They were hoping to grow the business to offer larger machinery for agricultural farmers, he added.
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