Matt Cutforth, 31, was feeling the effects of the economic downturn on his construction business, so he looked elsewhere to channel his entrepreneurial ambition.

As well as running his own business, Matt, who is originally from Rossendale, also works as a part-time fireman. For Matt, having the flexibility of being self-employed, runs well alongside his fire fighting duties.

After much research, Matt chose to buy an Ovenu franchise which will provide an intense oven cleaning service for Blackburn and the surrounding areas.

Ovenu’s valeting process is popular with householders across the UK. Since 1994 Ovenu’s network of over 100 franchisees have cleaned more than one million ovens, microwaves, and barbeques.

Ovenu provides domestic oven valeting services to householders, landlords and schools via a UK-wide network of technicians. The Ovenu process involves dismantling key components of an oven such as the door, interior panels, fan and shelves and placing them into design-registered equipment, which uses non-caustic products to thoroughly clean the oven parts.

The whole process takes around three hours and leaves the oven, hob and exterior in immaculate condition.

Matt said: “I was feeling unhappy about the construction industry and the way it was being affected by the recession, so I decided to look for a more stable career.

“I had heard about Ovenu from a friend so decided to look into it myself and found it to be a really good business, with great opportunities.

“I am looking forward to getting things started and I have already got two weeks of work lined up. The training and support I have received from the firm has been really impressive and I’m now looking forward to working hard and hopefully expanding the business further.”

Rik Hellewell, Managing Director of Ovenu, said, “Matt has great business sense as he used to own his own firm. It’s great that Matt’s Ovenu business can fit around his fireman duties and he can be as flexible as he needs to be.

“It’s early days for him at the moment but I know he will be able to take his Ovenu business as far as he wants to.”

For more information about the Ovenu service or to book a professional oven valet call freephone 0800 140 9800 or log onto Ovenu Blackburn

Alec Bartak, 35, originally hails from Prague in the Czech Republic, but has adopted Scotland as his homeland since falling in love with the country when he moved there five years ago.

He decided that he wanted to take the step of becoming his own boss and began searching for franchising opportunities in the Aberdeen area. After a year of research he finally decided upon becoming an Ovenu franchisee, wanting to provide services to the Aberdeen community that he had grown so fond of.

Throughout his new venture Alec will be getting administrative support from his wife Deepa, 27, who he met while living in Scotland.

No stranger to working with the general public, Alec has qualifications in automobile engineering and plumbing and was also involved in the antiques industry in Prague. He is hoping to use his people skills across the South Aberdeen area, allowing homeowners to enjoy their spare time rather than wasting it on doing one of the most hated of all household chores – cleaning the oven.

Ovenu has attracted over 60,000 customers per year across the UK and its franchise model has been replicated in Europe, Australia and the United States.

Its valeting service is so thorough that key components of an oven are dismantled and placed into design-registered equipment, which uses non-caustic products to clean the oven parts. The process takes around three hours and leaves the oven, hob and exterior in immaculate condition.

He said: “I love living in Scotland, it is the best move I ever made, the people are so warm and friendly and the atmosphere is jovial.

“I have thought about becoming my own boss for a while, but wanted to be sure that I was committing myself to the right franchise and do something that I know I could make work.

“I preferred Ovenu because of the excellent track record that the company has with current clients and other franchisees across the country. No-one likes cleaning their oven, it really can be a pain-staking and greasy job, but now people living in South Aberdeen have the option of using my service.

“I am really looking forward to keeping people’s ovens sparklingly clean.”

Rik Hellewell from Ovenu said: “Alec and Deepa make a great team, their people skills will really help them to take the business forward and I wish them every success in their new venture.”

For more information about the Ovenu service or to book a professional oven valet call freephone 0800 140 9800 or log onto Ovenu Aberdeen

Professional oven valeting service, Ovenu, has been launched in Beverley, East Yorkshire by a hardworking business woman looking for a challenge.

Jenny Fothergill has taken on a new business venture that intends to scrub up ovens throughout East Yorkshire, giving them a thorough and well deserved clean.

Jenny, originally from Surrey, moved to the area five years ago drawn to the friendly warmth of the region and in pursuit of a more content and relaxed lifestyle. She currently lives in Beverley with her 19 year old daughter Lydia and her partner James, who has a farming background and works within the agricultural sales sector.

After working for many years in administration and as a PA, Jenny, who most recently worked for a construction company within the marketing department, decided she needed a complete change.

Jenny realised she wanted to work for herself and be in control of her own business. With a confident and determined attitude, Jenny started looking at her options and finally invested in an Ovenu franchise as the first steps to begin building her own successful business.

Ovenu’s valeting process is popular with householders across the UK. Since 1994 Ovenu’s network of over 100 franchisees have cleaned more than one million ovens, microwaves, and barbeques.

Ovenu has attracted over 60,000 clients per year and its franchise model has been replicated across the globe including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

The Ovenu valeting process involves dismantling key components of an oven such as the door, interior panels, fan and shelves and placing them into design-registered tank equipment, which uses non-caustic products to clean the oven parts.  The whole process takes around three hours and leaves the oven, hob and exterior in immaculate condition.

Jenny said: “I knew I needed a change and wanted to be my own boss. I also knew I had the drive to make a business successful, so I started looking at different ways I could take this on. I decided to choose Ovenu as it has a great reputation and is an extremely professional company.

“Ovenu is a well established company which offerd great support, especially in the developing stages of setting up the franchise.

“I now do something which I believe in and love seeing the results. I get job satisfaction from knowing how good the product and techniques used in the cleaning process are, and by seeing how delighted the clients are with their newly cleaned ovens.

“In this current financial climate I feel it is essential that people get good value for money and the service supplied by Ovenu is definitely that.”

Managing Director of Ovenu, Rik Hellewell, said: “Jenny has grasped the franchise with both hands, she really believes in the product and the results that can be achieved for homeowners and their ovens.

“We are thrilled that Jenny is part of the Ovenu franchise and pleased she decided to make the leap and change her career. I know she will be able to take her business onwards and upwards”

For more information about the Ovenu service or to book a professional oven valet, call freephone 0800 140 9800 or log onto www.ovenu.co.uk.

Until October last year, Matthew Lane, 36 from Isleworth, had been an employee of a local imaging company. He worked there for a period of sixteen years in roles such as customer service agent and business analyst.

Matthew’s career came crashing down on him when it was announced in July last year that he was being made redundant as a consequence of the economic downturn.

Matthew decided to waste no time reflecting on his misfortunes and instead began to consider his options for starting a new business with the redundancy payment that he had been given.

After looking at several options, Matthew decided that he wanted to follow the franchising route and after considering the opportunities available, he invested in our Ovenu franchise as the first steps to begin building his own successful business.

Our oven valeting process is extremely popular with householders across the UK. Since 1994 our network of over 100 franchisees have cleaned more than one million ovens, microwaves, and barbeques.

We attract over 60,000 clients per year and our franchise model has been replicated across the globe including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Our valeting process involves dismantling key components of an oven such as the door, interior panels, fan and shelves and placing them into design-registered equipment, which uses non-caustic products to clean the oven parts. The whole process takes around three hours and leaves the oven, hob and exterior in immaculate condition.

Matthew said: “Obviously I was devastated when I found out that I was being made redundant as it had huge implications on my life.

“I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go down the same career path as before, but when I started thinking about being my own boss I knew my background in customer service and business analysis would help me significantly.

“I decided to choose Ovenu as it was affordable and a simple business model to understand. The oven cleaning results speak for themselves, when the outcome of a product is as good as Ovenu’s, you know that you are starting out on the right foot.

“It is a daunting experience completely changing your career role and starting something new, but I am confident that I have made the best career decision that I could have ever made.”

Rik Hellewell, Managing Director of Ovenu, said: “Matthew has excellent business and customer service skills, which puts him in a strong position to rapidly grow and develop his Ovenu business.

“He is a worthy example of someone who hasn’t let the terrible economic situation dampen his spirits, but is someone who has used it as an opportunity to start something completely new.”

For more information about the Ovenu service or to book Matthew for a professional oven valet call freephone 0800 140 9800 or log onto www.ovenu.co.uk.

Paul Clarke from Ovenu Warrington is offering 50% discount on oven liners with all oven clean bookings.

Peter Bell from Ovenu South Notts is offering one pack of extractor filters with every extractor clean booked.

Richard from Ovenu Halifax & Bradford will clean your hob or extractor free of charge on bookings taken before the end February.

Andy from Ovenu Chester is offering a free replacement oven lamp if required with any oven clean during the months of Feburay and March 2010.

Ian from Ovenu South Oxon is offering free filters for each hood cleaned.

Stan from Ovenu Poole is offering a free hood filter if the hood is cleaned.

Paul from Ovenu Sunderland is offereing to clean your extractor free of charge when you have your ovenu & hob cleaned.

John from Ovenu Lanarkshire is offering free replacement lamps or free magic sponge with every order placed in Feb/March 2010.

Colin from Ovenu Derby is offering free bulb replacement when needed on all oven cleans over £55.

Oven cleaners can be divided into two main groups, those that work and those that don’t!

Generally speaking, the oven cleaners that “do what they say on the package” will contain ingredients that mean you’ll need to be very careful when using the product.

You MUST read the instructions first. This is very important indeed.

There are numerous cases every week of damage to both humans and appliances where the instructions have become ‘destructions’ because warnings have not been heeded. Warnings are put onto oven cleaning products for good reason.

A common ingredient found in many ‘off the shelf’ oven cleaners is sodium hydroxide more commonly known as caustic soda. This product is a very high alkaline that can cause a lot of damage if not used in accordance with instructions.

Just a few of the associated problems caused by mis-use of caustic soda based products are:

• Burns to the skin
• Irritation to eyes
• Damage to nostrils and lungs
• Removal of paint
• Corrosion of certain metals
• Dulling of glass
• Rotting of rubber
• Distortion of elements
• Removal of ’self-clean’ coatings including ‘non-stick’.

The list above isn’t exhaustive, but just an idea of what can go wrong. That said, caustic soda is a very effective oven cleaner and oven cleaning product particularly in a commercial environment. You may also need to look out for some of the different variations of caustic/corrosive oven cleaners including caustic potash and potassium hydroxide to name just a couple. If the oven cleaner you’re looking at has a label for ‘corrosive’ than the chances are it contains caustic in some way, shape or form.

A huge issue with caustic based products is that they often are sold in aerosol sprays and the product is dispensed at speed making accurate ’spraying’ virtually impossible without ‘masking’ all the potentially hazardous areas before-hand… pretty time consuming in the modern world we live in!!

You’ll also do well to look out for the so called ‘professional oven cleaning companies’ that claim to be “just a bit caustic”… products are either caustic or not… bit like ‘wet’… Either it is or it isn’t!!

A far ‘kinder’ range of oven cleaners contain ’surfactants’ to physically break down the grease and fatty substances rather than ‘burning’ them off. Oven cleaning products containing these ingredients will generally be more limited in effect and will take longer to work.

On the plus side however they will be a lot kinder to the environment and safer to dispose of after use. You’ll probably have to use a lot of this type of oven cleaner on heavy soiling perhaps even a second or third application in severe circumstances.

The range of oven cleaners and oven cleaning products that claim to be ‘eco-friendly’ is a huge growth market. A couple of these products claim to be ‘chemical-free’ !! This actually means they only contain water….anything added is in fact a chemical of some sorts. Various pastes, sprays and gels will have limited effect as their main constituent ingredient is just water. Extremely environmentally friendly but won’t necessarily do the job you need doing. In many cases simple washing up liquid would produce a better result!!

As you’ll now appreciate the oven cleaning product range is interesting and diverse for many good reasons and logic. As we pointed out from the outset, it’s a minefield out there however, exercising due diligence before embarking on the oven cleaning chore, should ensure that both you and your cooking appliances are still in one piece once you’ve finished the job!!

If in any doubt, contact an oven valeting professional. These guys will know exactly what they’re doing and will leave your oven sparkling, hygienic, safe to use and you free to enjoy the finer things in life!!

We work closely with many manufacturers of quality cooking appliances in the UK and abroad and offer this advice directly to you, the consumer, to help preserve the appliance you have purchased or are looking at purchasing in the future.

Click here for more information on self cleaning ovens