Inventor Graham sets £1.2 billion benchmark. . .

10:59am Friday 16th May 2008

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A PROLIFIC Southampton inventor has landed himself a slice of a £1.2 BILLION annual advertising deal with a contract to supply one of the world's biggest retailers with a promotional plastic bench.

The well known US retailer, which cannot be named for contractual reasons, has ordered 10,000 benches made out of recycled plastic bags with solar powered lightboxes for advertising.

They got in contact after reading about inventor Graham Smith's idea in the Daily Echo. As previously reported, his first customer was a major UK supermarket, which can now be named as Tesco.

Britain's biggest retailer, Tesco is taking 3,000 of the benches for its UK stores, with the first expected to go into the Bursledon superstore within a fortnight. Unlike that deal, the US retail giant is getting the benches at cost price in return for giving Mr Smith's company Greyhatch a cut of the £1.2 billion advertising revenue the benches are expected to generate. Spanish and French bus companies are also in negotiations with Grayhatch to take a further 3,000 benches at bus stops. Jeans brand Levi Straus is also in talks about a contract to supply environmentally friendly lightboxes for its stores.

It all adds up to a boom for Shirley double glazing supplier The Window Company, which will be involved in producing all 6,000 benches. The benches in the US deal will be built in Ohio. The environmentally friendly benches are just the latest in a long line of invention from Mr Smith, a former Bitterne Park pupil.

Previous inventions include safety handles for wheelbarrows, solar powered vending machines and toothbrushes with water in the handle to combat disease, which are now being issued to British soldiers on active service abroad.In total, Grayhatch, which is run with business partner Andy Hatcher, has 30 patents either already established or pending. "Generating electricity to light adverts to persuade people to buy products is wrong. We knew this had to happen,'' said Mr Smith, 44.

"I still can't believe I got one of the world's biggest retailers to buy into it but they have realised what they can make from it and what they can do for the environment. They read about us in the Daily Echo - that's how they found us.''