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.
Having been working with the chaps at Youthstream, the organisers of the MXGP World Motocross series for the past 8 months or so, and with both parties enjoying this union, its awesome for us to announce that its now Official. 
