A WOMAN whose successful dinner parties saw her launch her own range of butters is now taking her product international after striking details with a raft of the UK’s most exclusive retailers.

Kairen Dods set up Butter-Fingers in Shildon, County Durham, just over a year ago, after impressing friends at her dinner parties with her culinary creation. Since then she has seen her products sold in more than 80 delicatessens, food halls and restaurants across the country.

Her sweet and savoury flavoured butters are stocked in the Queen’s retailer Fortnum and Mason, department store Harvey Nichols, and North Yorkshire fine food retailer Lewis and Cooper. Most recently, Mrs Dods has struck a deal with department store group John Lewis.

Now, Mrs Dods, who grew up in Singapore, is seeing significant interest from her home country, and hopes to branch out into exporting this year, taking Butter-Fingers international.

The runaway success of Butter-Fingers, which was hailed as a very useful idea by esteemed food critic Charles Campion, has enabled Mrs Dods to take on her first member of staff, production operator Joanne Mulley. This means Mrs Dods can spend more time on business development and promoting the products. “I’m delighted with how the business has grown month-by-month, since it was established in late 2008. We’ve never looked back and it’s a great achievement to see the products in such high-profile stores and restaurants,” said Mrs Dods, who lives in Heighington.

“It’s all happened very fast – within two months of me first taking the products round local shops it was being sold in Lewis and Cooper, and it’s gone from there.”

The butters, all hand-made using locally-sourced herbs, add a burst of flavour to dishes, and come in flavours including sun-dried tomato and basil, smoked salmon and chive, sweet citrus lemon and fragrant ginger.

Ms Dods has been supported during her first year in business by the local enterprise agency for the Sedgefield borough, SASDA, and helped by its Working Neighbourhood Fund .

Philip Beasley, chief executive of SASDA, said: “Butter- Fingers is a fantastic local business that is really going places. The list of impressive national stockists is testament to the products and the company’s determination to be market leaders.”