Farmer’s son, 25, who developed fruit crisps in his university dorm begins exporting them around the world and is set to net £1million
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- Charlie Fermor has taken an order of 100,000 packs from Australia alone and hopes to make £1m next year
- It all started in the spare room of his student house in Reading where he set up a lab to dry fruit like apples and pears between lectures
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Most people go to university and end up spending a fortune - not making one.
But a farmer's son from Kent has done just that after he started developing unique fruit crisps in his university digs and is now exporting them around the world.
Charlie Fermor has now sold more than one million packets of his healthy snack made from apples and pears.
Real McCoy: Farmer Charlie Fermor (pictured) dreamt up and tested making apple crisps in his student digs and is now exporting them around the world
Big apple: Recent orders of Charlie's crisps include 100,000 packs to Australia and 40,000 to China
The 25-year-old has taken orders for 100,000 packs from Australia, 40,000 from China and 10,000 from the UAE, with the business set to net him over a million pounds in 2013.
Charlie began experimenting with making the fruit crisps - the only ones of their kind in the UK - while studying agricultural business management at university in Reading.
He turned his student accommodation into a makeshift lab and bought a dehydrator device to dry out slices of the fruit as he experimented with apples in between lectures.
He has so far refused to supply British supermarkets because of issues with pricing, preferring to build up relationships with smaller retailers.
Simple: The product contains one simple ingredient - the great British apple
Foreign exports: This load of apples is destined for the Chinese market, which has already ordered tens of thousands of packets
'There was a spare in my university house in my last year there so thought experimenting in making the crisps would be a good way of making some use of it.' he said.
'I had some mixed results to begin with but it turned out quite well.
'We have had a lot of interest in the fruit crisps.
'We are making the product ourselves, which is increasingly rare, and that’s something we pride ourselves on.
'There has been a great response to what we have done and we can’t really keep up with demand at the moment.
'We’ll continue to target new markets, that’s what we are doing with exporting the crisps to other countries as well as getting them into the schools.
Home: Charlie in the family orchard with the raw material and the farm is expecting the fruit crisp enterprise to make over a million pounds next year
From tree to machine: But it all started for Charlie when he started drying apples in his student house
'But at this stage we are avoiding the supermarkets and looking out for smaller retailers.'
After finishing his degree at the University of Reading in 2008, Charlie used his newfound knowledge to develop his brand of crisps at Perry Court Farm, near Ashford, Kent.
He visited famous American fruit-growing states such as Oregon and California to learn about processing techniques.
Returning to the UK Charlie used some savings to buy his own equipment and set up production in an on-site cold store on the farm using the apples from the orchards.
Taking on the world: The crisps, made of apple and pears are proving very popular but will not be sold in supermarkets
That was when the business really started to take off and Charlie hasn’t looked back since.
After a trade show six months ago more and more retailers from countries across the globe are now getting in touch with Perry Court Farm about the tasty crisps.
The global chain Whole Foods Market snapped up the snacks for their five London shops as well as many other smaller retailers across the country.
The tasty crisps, which sell for 50 pence a pack, have proved popular with school tuck shops, as one packet counts as one of your five-a-day.
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