Northumberland wellies firm enjoys surge in sales thanks to Loose Women's Stacey Solomon

The Loose Women panellist shared a video on her Instagram page of her son, Rex, on his dad Joe Swash’s shoulders wearing Squelch Wellies.

The former X Factor finalist has 3.5 million Instagram followers – and that helped spark a big rush to buy the product.

“We had over 500 online sales in the space of 48 hours,” said Squelch director Amanda Wooldridge.

“One single act of kindness from someone with such a positive Instagram following was hugely significant for us as a small business.”

It all came about after Squelch social media manager, Sasha Wells, found herself in conversation with Stacey’s sister and gifted a couple of pairs of wellies.

"One of the pairs was passed on to Stacey but several weeks passed and nothing happened,” said Amanda.

"Quite often with big celebrities or influencers you can pay £5,000 for an endorsement like that so it was very kind of Stacey to post a story with her boy wearing them.

"The response was unbelievable,” she said. “Our logistics office was working through the night to fulfil the orders.”

Amanda is also keen to encourage other small businesses like hers to realise the potential of social media.

"I do feel it’s absolutely worthwhile to employ someone to do your social media properly,” she said. “Around 80 per cent of our online sales come from social media so I can’t emphasise its importance enough.

"Obviously a lot of small businesses are struggling right now but I really do think a strong social media presence can help them.”

Squelch, which teams transparent wellies with colourful socks so children can sport a host of different looks, has come a long way in the past 18 months.

Amanda, based at The Alnwick Gallery on Market Place, came up with the playful concept because her children, Thomas and Alice, got bored wearing the same wellies all the time.

Earlier this year it enjoyed triple success at The Gift Association’s annual awards.

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