Cucumbers make a cool sum for businessman Paul

An inventive businessman discovered a way to make cash out of the humble cucumber.
Dewsbury businessman Paul Goddard has created a machine that strips out-of-date packaged food into animal feed.Dewsbury businessman Paul Goddard has created a machine that strips out-of-date packaged food into animal feed.
Dewsbury businessman Paul Goddard has created a machine that strips out-of-date packaged food into animal feed.

The managing director of Dewsbury-based Waste Food Solutions, Paul Goddard, built a machine which strips out-of-date supermarket food from its packaging.

Paul, wife Sharon and business partner Richard Hampshire have turned 98,000 packaged cucumbers into 15 tonnes of animal feed and sold it to local farmers.

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Mr Goddard, whose business is in Bretton Park Way, said: “I first built the separating machine when I was living in Glossop seven years ago and the cost of feeding 500 wild boars was eating into my profit.

“I got in touch with a local supermarket which provided me with its unsold fresh produce, which would have gone to waste. Removing packaging became a tedious task and as a former engineer I found a method to save time and money.”

Paul’s machine is able to recover 98 per cent of the food by shedding card and plastic, which is then recycled.

The Business Enterprise Fund offers financial support to start-up and established businesses which cannot gain funding from other sources.

Paul was able to develop his plans with a £19,500 loan from the Yorkshire-based backers.

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