Barnsley based ‘accidental entrepreneur’ targets global expansion via new funding

A self-confessed ‘accidental entrepreneur’, who became one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of colourful sensory putty, has secured a match-funded grant from the South Yorkshire Business Productivity Programme to help her business target growth in international markets.

Ruby Sheldon launched her Carlton based business Slime Party UK in 2018. Inspired by her daughter, who wanted to celebrate her birthday by inviting her friends to make slime together, Ruby decided to take matters into her own hands and began developing her slime making workshops.

The party proved to be an “instant hit”, and Ruby started receiving requests from other parents to host similar events. Sensing a small business opportunity Ruby decided to advertise her unique slime parties on a social media platform.

Within just a month, Ruby had secured party bookings for a full 12 months. As she began experimenting with new ways of making colourful, scented and sensory slime, she started selling her products online.

When the Covid-19 pandemic forced Ruby to suspend her slime parties, she spent time developing her own unique compound, a sensory putty with a ‘butter-slime’ texture designed to be thick and easy to hold, but also the perfect texture for stretching, squashing and encouraging sensory play.

Her products quickly caught the eye of national retailer Toymaster, and today Slime Party UK produces over 4,000 tubs of Ruby’s unique sensory putty each week. With demand for her services growing quickly, Ruby expanded her business, combining a manufacturing facility and colourful shop in Barnsley which opened its doors earlier this year.

With plans to expand her business internationally, Ruby knew that she needed to re-think the way her sensory putties were manufactured, enabling her to increase production to meet future demands and she decided to contact Enterprising Barnsley for help.

Working with key account manager Paul Johnson, Ruby secured funds through the South Yorkshire Business Productivity Programme, a match funded ERDF grant scheme, to enable her to automate her packaging processes.

The funds helped Slime Party UK to invest in a labelling machine, allowing labels to be added to her pots of sensory putty automatically, rather than relying upon members of staff physically labelling her products.

The machinery helped to free up the time of two of her 13-strong workforce, enabling production capacity to increase, and since installing the new equipment, Slime Party UK has started to forge an international distribution network and even exhibited at trade shows in North America.

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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