Cereal entrepreneurs Luke Christian and Timothy Cottingham know the power of local media.

The founders of Wigton-based muesli company Lakeland Mues have already found that appearing in The Cumberland News has had a dramatic effect on generating interest in their products.

Now they are hoping to attract even more attention through our Business Boost competition, which puts them in the frame to win £10,000-worth of free advertising.

The two friends moved into the breakfast cereal business after careers in other industries – Mr Christian as a management consultant for Deloitte in London while Mr Cottingham worked in the timber industry in Cumbria.

They were introduced to toasted muesli by a Swedish friend and spotted a gap in the market. They have both quit their jobs to make a success of this new venture. Their recipes boast a high proportion of seeds, nuts, cereals and fruit, and comes in two varieties – Artman Classic and Tropical Medley.

Mr Christian said: “Our starting point was in producing a delicious ‘mues’ for our own consumption and when this led to a business venture, we didn’t want to compromise on the good stuff. There are plenty of other standard muesli brands out there and we wanted to keep our distinctiveness.”

Their firm was set up in September and has already attracted the interest of some of the county’s biggest retailers, including Cranstons and Pioneer. The duo are now hoping to take their product into luxury hotels around the country.

Mr Christian said: Within the next six months, we will be looking to take on a couple of part-time employees to support packing and online orders along.

“People we meet love our enthusiasm for the business and for Cumbria and we are passionate about sharing this with employees and creating a incredible environment to work.”


The company has been featured in The Cumberland News since it was set up, something the pair are extremely grateful about.

“The CN Group deserves a fair bit of credit for our growth so far as we have had articles in a few different publications and we have had a lot of feedback from customers saying they recognised us from one of the articles,” Mr Christian said.

“This in itself is evidence of how much a difference free local business advertising would make.”

Alongside the advertising, CN Group’s Business Boost competition could see entrants pick up top mentoring advice from the region’s business leaders.

Six businesses will win £10,000 to spend on advertising in our newspapers and websites – there will be one winner from each category for north, west and south Cumbria.

You can apply to enter at www.cumberlandnews.co.uk /businessboost and the closing date is Friday, March 31.