SUCCESSFUL business woman Debbie Pierce has lifted the lid on her rise from a Saturday girl on Bury Market to the managing director of multi-million pound company.

Ms Pierce, co-founder of Bury Black Pudding Company, has spoken of her vision to turn the company into a leading brand — first breaking into major UK supermarkets by "knocking on their doors" to now taking their product to international markets.

The company which has its roots in Bolton is based in Ms Pierce's hometown of Bury — where she still lives — and has a turnover of £3.5 million — a figure which the company is looking to increase to £6 million in the next two years.

She said: "Working on the market stall was invaluable. College and education is important but practical experience is crucial — it gave me a picture of how business worked, I got more involved than I needed to be."

Even after school she continued working at the stall — because of her loyalty to the owner who she thought of as family — while juggling being a waitress with working in a newsagent.

As her boss retired she teamed up with Richard Morris in 2002 to found the Bury Black Pudding Company.

The pair turned a small market stall selling the product based on Mr Morris father’s recipe, into a branded product retailing online.

Lack of finance meant that she had to market it with out a budget and so decided to fly the St George's flag at Wimbledon with the website address on it — gaining her exposure on prime time television and thousands of hits on the website.

Ms Pierce added: "The market ran for three days a week and people from all over would come to buy the black puddings, and at that time websites were appearing.

"I decided to set up a website so we could take the black puddings to the customer — many of our customers were from the south because they didn't have black puddings there."

But it wasn't until she knocked on the door of Asda, which at the time was running a promotion on local produce did she realise there was a niche market.

She still remembers when she did her first sampling at the supermarket taking two boxes in — and selling out in less than a hour.

"I knew this could be big, it could be massive, that was the realisation and that was my vision — to be the number one brand," she said.

"I still remember when people came up looked at the label and the thrill when they bought it."

But Ms Pierce said setting up and running a business was tough and that "drive" was important.

She said: "It not an easy journey but it is rewarding. You have to keep knocking on those door — I kept going to Tesco for a year — you have to keep going."

The Bury lass, who still plays rounders for the town, added: "I am really excited about breaking into the international marketed. There is a massive opportunity out there."

Ms Pierce spoke to The Bolton News after appearing at the University of Bolton's regular "an evening with" business networking event hosted by broadcaster Gordon Burns.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Rob Campell said: "We were delighted to have Debbie speaking at the university. She is very local and a real role model and an inspiration. She shows to our students what can be done."