Peterhead Business Hopes to ‘Walkodile’ Away with Prestigious Award

A north east business has been named as a Grampian Awards for Business Enterprise 2007 finalist, thanks to a revolutionary invention that bears more than a passing resemblance to a neon green reptile. Peterhead's Red Island Limited, creator of the Walkodile®, an innovative system for walking groups of children, has been named as a finalist in the New Start category.

The revolutionary Walkodile® was invented by teacher Elaine Stephen, with a simple goal of ensuring the best possible safety for the children under her care during walking trips. The idea came about out of necessity, after Elaine had scoured the market for a product that could do just this. Upon discovering that it did not exist, she took the step of inventing her own!

Walkodile®, designed for use by children between the ages of three and seven years old, works by linking either six or four children to a central flexible spine. Each child wears a high visibility harness with a clip, which is then connected to the spine. The innovative product has already received acclaim from children, parents and childcare staff, and interest has been registered from not just the north east of Scotland but the rest of the UK and further afield.

John Stephen, managing director of Red Island says: "There were four years of product development before Walkodile® became a reality. Since then Red Island has hit target after target; in terms of making the product available, in raising public awareness in it, and importantly, in sales. An initial target of achieving orders from 50% of the schools and nurseries testing the product was surpassed by 19%.

"Raising awareness in Walkodile® is central for the success of Red Island Ltd, not just in the UK, but all around the world. A critical part of our marketing plan was a desire to create a 'best in class' image. We wanted a unique brand and we have it. We wanted to back this up with a memorable website, we have achieved that. We were creative and commissioned a Walkodile® movie and Walkodile® song. Finally we were able to back this up with Elaine's inside knowledge. She knew what would appeal to a teacher working to strict budgets, and what type of approach to adopt.

"Having the efforts of Elaine and I acknowledged through industry recognition is extremely gratifying. When obstacles had to be overcome, we were prepared to take risks because we believed in the product and without this belief and the talented team we assembled we would not be in the position that we are today. Being named as a Grampian Awards for Business Enterprise finalist is fantastic and if we were to secure the New Start Award I would be delighted."