Grandmother spinning with hoop's success

Pyes Pa grandmother Sue Davies didn't mean to start a business _ she only wanted to make her own hula hoop to use at the gym.

But having successfully made an adult size hula hoop, Mrs Davies was flooded with sales requests from her fellow gym-members to the point where she launched a business.

That was 12 months ago and now Mrs Davies has a website, a Trade Me account and stockists around the country.

The Exerhoop is an adult size, specially weighted hoop that can be used as an easy, cheap and fun workout tool. Regular use of the hoop helped people to lose weight and strengthen their core muscles, Mrs Davies said.

Sue's husband Peter makes the hoops in their Pyes Pa garage, although if production levels keep rising he'll have to look for a bigger workshop.

Mrs Davies said they were selling at least 10 hula hoops a week and that number was growing.

``I've never done this type of thing before, it was just one of those things that once I started and it started to roll, it just hasn't stopped.

``It kind of started off as something really small and I had no intention of taking it to where it is and it's just evolved so quickly without too much effort.''

Such easy success has attracted competitors, however the Exerhoop has continued growing sales by being one of the cheapest adult hula hoops on the market, Mrs Davies said.