Tuesday 13 May 2014

All of our Bike and Car Cleaners Made in Britain & proud of it!

We have been featured in this months Bike Biz magazine which focusses on those brands that are "Made in Britain".  We are very proud that this is the case for us, and in fact we do pretty much everything in house from bottling, labelling, mixing, and creating all of our own products, which also means we have the flexibility to always be growing our product range to fit the needs of all you challenging bunch of dudes, and the extreme conditions you throw yourself and your wheels through.

Here's the full article, which may also enlighten you more about us and how we roll!

Duck Smart, Made in Britain and Proud of it!

Duck Smart is a relatively new company in terms of cleaning products for the cycle market, but as a team they have been manufacturing and creating their own products for the commercial sector for over twenty years.

Through the companies owner Gary Bennett, and chief Chemist Graham Wood, for the Duck Smart range of products they have diverted away from their commercial roots and created a range of PH Neutral, foaming, non caustic cleaners which has certainly got the industry talking both for the effectiveness of the products, and the sweet smells used in them. On top of all of this they proudly stake claim to the fact that all of their products are manufactured in the UK at their headquarters in Benfleet in Essex by themselves.

Gary tells us more “For us its a natural thing for us to create all of our products in house as that is what we have always done. As well as this, we purchase all of the other materials, like boxes, bottles and labels all from local suppliers within a 20 mile radius, in fact quite a lot of what we use is bought using the other companies on the Trading Estate where we are based”.

“Because we manufacture everything ourselves it means that we can play around with colors, smells, different types of products, and raw materials so we can continually develop and improve our range. We have 3 or 4 new products pretty much ready to be launched and another 3 we are working on now. We like to always work with our teams, riders and dealers when we develop new products, so that we get honest feedback from all types of people and then we amend the products from there. Making everything in house means this process is a lot quicker and easier than outsourcing it, and also most outsourced products are ready made formulas with just a few things changed. I suppose some of our disadvantages are also our advantages in some respects. Graham our chemist likes everything to be perfect and more importantly safe for both the consumer and the bike, and as much as we can environmentally friendly, but this also means that our products contain more raw materials and elements to them. For instance our Foaming Earth Mover Bike Cleaner is a truly unique product which took two years to develop, and is made up of Softeners and detergents and contains 10 raw materials so this means it is more expensive to produce than the more common Hard surface cleaner based products which can be sourced from outside of the UK and can be watered down and very cheap. So I suppose our disadvantage is cost, but that is also an advantage to our customers who receive a product that they know they can trust on their bike and components, and has been thoroughly tested by experts in the UK. Again some of the bottles and containers we used could be purchased from abroad for cheaper but we have always work well with our current provider who sell us bottles made from recycled plastics so it is something we would not like to compromise on if we can help it. Being local they also help us out with smaller quantities if we are running short so it means our turn around is a lot quicker and means less space is taken with storage as if you purchased abroad you have to buy larger quantities”.



The innovative team at Duck Smart are always working hard to develop the next range of cleaners and with much of their Marketing being based around wash bays and letting people try their products. With their hands on, friendly approach we are sure you will be finding out about their products for yourself very soon, all of which are proudly stamped with Made in Britain on them.


For information on Duck Smart visit www.duck-smart.com email info@ducksmart.co.uk or call 01268 350700

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