Designer’s helping hand in the kitchen

Nathan Bestwick, 25, who grew up in Rotherham and studied at Sheffield Hallam University, is setting up the kitchenware brand with manufacturer Gripple under its Incub programme for local inventors.

Mr Bestwick hopes to begin production within a year and wants to take on the major kitchenware brands.

The Millme spice mill has been designed to be used by people with limited strength or dexterity in their hands and works by being rolled in the hands without needing to grip or twist.

Mr Bestwick set up If? Works, a product and graphic design consultancy in Sheffield, shortly after graduating, and has since set up an employee-owned kitchenware company which has not yet been named.

He said: “I have started developing my products for manufacture and will be setting up meetings with retailers like John Lewis in the next few months, with the aim of getting the products into the shops by the end of this year.”

His landed on his idea when he was an industrial design student at Sheffield Hallam. He went on to develop a range of kitchen items which he believes will be attractive to all consumers.

The products were inspired by his enjoyment of cooking and his memories of how his late grandmother struggled with severe arthritis.

He was referred by staff at Sheffield Hallam’s Enterprise Centre to Jim Lawson of the Entrepreneur Exchange and received free advice on how to bring his product to market.

Sheffield-based Gripple, which was founded in 1988 by entrepreneur Hugh Facey, became synonymous with fencing and trellising used in agriculture and viticulture.