Ruth Lee Ltd specialises in making dummies for the fire and rescue industry and last year created a mammoth 28-stone training dummy that takes six people to move.

The obese dummy undoubtedly helped boost sales and this year the company is reporting a turnover rise in January of 300 per cent, from £28,000 to £90,000.

"It isn't possible to simply add dead weight to one of our existing dummies, as that does not accurately represent the weight distribution in a larger person," said Susan Edwards, managing director of Ruth Lee.

"Our aim was to achieve a 'fluidity of movement' and our top designer Sarah Hughes created a dummy that replicates, as closely as possible, the body mass of a large person, creating a realistic training tool."

In addition to manufacturing fire and rescue dummies, the company also supplies products, such as resuscitation dummies, and aims to become a one-stop-shop for this kind of equipment throughout the international market and already exports to the USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, and the Middle East.

Ruth Lee has been supported by the Welsh Assembly Government's overseas trade and investment arm, International Business Wales (IBW) and employs 14 full-time staff, but is looking to expand.