FROM small beginnings storing stock in her bedroom and waiting for her first phone order, Sky McCann has built up an outdoor clothing business employing 22 people in just eight years.

Sky, 36, along with her husband Richard set up Out Of The City in 2004 and now the company has retail premises at its headquarters in Buckshaw Village near Chorley, as well as a burgeoning online business.

After finishing college, Sky began to work in the family business, a gun shop in Eccelston.

She was responsible for day to day running, advertising, bringing in computerisation and websites, accounts, admin and buying.

But her favourite role was overseeing the clothing and footwear department.

Seeing a gap in the market she decided to set up her own firm.

She said: “Very little countrywear was available on the internet at that time. Richard and I decided to give up our jobs and launch a new company specialising in countrywear online.

“We built the website and invested in a small amount of stock, working from home.

“Within six months we had filled the house with stock to the point where we had to eat out every night as you couldn’t get into the kitchen to cook anything, and the TV was hidden behind a pile of boxes.”

In its early years, the business grew at almost 200 per cent year on year. In 2006 they launched www.wellywarehouse.co.uk which was also a hit, but the rapidly expanding requirement for stock storage space, and the bigger deals that they were striking with suppliers, meant that they could no longer contain the business at home.

In 2009, they moved to a modern warehouse in Buckshaw Village with offices.

Last year, they moved next door but one to a warehouse twice the size.