MUSIC scene gurus Jay Knight and Steve Gravener are hitting all the right notes with their thriving eco-friendly courier delivery venture.

The duo have grown EcoSpeed in Bolton into a company with a turnover approaching £1 million — and they are using their love of nature, wildlife and conservation as a unique selling point.

Leigh-born Mr Knight, aged 32, trained as a music sound engineer before launching EcoSpeed in 2005.

He was later joined by 37-year-old Steve Gravener, who he knew as an electronic music events and festivals promoter around the Manchester area.

“EcoSpeed uses vehicles fuelled on LPG and there are governors on the vans to keep them from going above certain speeds,” said Mr Knight, a former pupil of Bridgewater School in Worsley.

“We give 10 per cent of our profit to carbon offset projects.”

In particular, the firm in Mule Street, Bolton, is helping with the preservation of Chat Moss — a peat bog which occupies a massive stretch of land between Salford and Liverpool.

“It’s one of the most bio-diverse areas of the North West,” said Mr Knight, who is also studying for a degree wildlife conservation.

“Our conservation ethics are our USP,” he said. “We are no cheaper than other companies, but we know many of our customers prefer to use us because they know we give back to the environment.

“We are running 35 vans and doing deliveries all over the country, but we have access to up to 2,000 vehicles if we need them.”

Among EcoSpeed’s customers are JCB, and courier gian FedEx but Mr Knight and Mr Gravener are convinced their customer-base will continue to grow.

“We noticed the recession like everyone else,” said Mr Gravener. “That’s because we’re on the front line. But we put a lot of different strategies in place to grow the business and it appears to be paying off.”