AN Ilkley company which developed a cure for smelly ten-pin bowling shoes is now celebrating a major coup after coming up with a number of winning products for gardeners.

Bio Natura announced this week that it has agreed an exclusive licence deal with Phostrogen, the leading garden retail company which has launched a new range of products at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham this week.

Keith MacGregor, managing director of Bio Natura said that the company was now looking forward to concentrating on the commercial market and, in its own right, promoting and launching a new horticultural hygiene system to the professional growers' market.

Speaking of the Phostrogen contract, he said: "It is a major coup. This is one of the biggest players. To take a little company's product and give it a stamp of approval is marvellous."

The deal with Phostrogen came after Mr MacGregor's approach to the company in 1998 and has resulted in the three new gardening products being taken up by the horticultural giants.

One of the products is a natural algae remover which uses technology that does not attack the algae but simply lifts the cell, allowing it to be blown away.

It is designed to remove the slippery green film which appears on patios and walkways, greenhouses and garden features such as decking. The algae remover can be used to remove contamination from polytunnels, paths walkways and decking with a single spray-on application.

There is no scrubbing, scraping or other hard work involved. The algae disappears and will not return for six months. The other products being sold under the Phostrogen name include a universal outdoor cleaner and a path, patio and drive cleaner.

The products will now be on the shelves in shops and garden centres throughout the country.

But Mr MacGregor and the rest of the staff at Bio Natura won't be resting on their laurels as the company plans to launch more safe, natural products for use in the horticulture industry and in the medical field.

At an earlier exhibition this year Bio Natura launched the same products taken up by Phostrogen but this time for the professional gardening trade.

Bio Natura's horticultural hygiene range is a comprehensive decontaminating, disinfection, and disease control system without using dangerous chemicals.

Marketing Director Valeen Crooke said: "All our products and natural and bio-degradable."

After working around the world as a consultant engineer on conservation projects, Mr MacGregor, of Grove Road, Ilkley, helped to launch Bio Natura five years ago.

The company, with 12 full-time employees, has three offices and a warehouse in Ilkley and uses sub-contractors around the country to help to develop its inventions. Bio Natura also makes a special spray which is used in bowling alleys to sanitise bowling shoes.

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