A mother-of-two has turned a redundancy payment and interest in health food into a thriving new business.

Lotwina Farodoye, 38, of Grosvenor Gardens, Wallington, was made redundant from her job in marketing just over a year ago. Now her own brand of fruit bars are stocked by both Waitrose and Holland and Barrett.

She said: “I absolutely loved my job and had spent many years climbing the career ladder.

“In the past head hunters had phoned me on a regular basis but with the deepening recession the stark reality was that those calls had become few and far between.

“As the jobs in my field were no longer out there, I knew I had to do something.”

Against the advice of her friends, Mrs Farodoye decided to invest all her redundancy money into a new business idea.

She said: “I was attracted to the idea of natural fruit bars due to the difficulties I've had finding healthy snacks in the shops to give my children.

“I've often thought it would be great to have healthier alternatives that look and taste yummy.

“The more I spoke to other mums about this, the more I realised I was not alone.”

After talking to hundreds of mums on the street and in the playground, the idea of Be Fruity natural fruit bars was born.

She said: “Holland and Barrett starting stocking my bars earlier this year and sold out of their first order within two weeks.

“Waitrose started stocking them from March 1 and from May 1 they quadrupled store distribution.”

Mrs Farodoye is now waiting to hear whether Marks and Spencer will be taking up the product and she has been asked to appear on the BBC's Working Lunch programme this week.

She said: “I had to learn so many new things. To start your own business you have to be able to do everything and be all singing and all dancing but its all been very rewarding.

“Working for myself means I have a better work life balance and can be there for my children.

“It's early days yet but I am really hopeful for the future.”