A KITCHEN-TABLE popcorn business has beaten established US rivals and won a contract to supply a major supermarket.

The savoury flavoured Corn Again range, developed by the fledgling Consett Popcorn Company, will be sold in 19 Asda stores across the North- East.

It is the latest success for Catherine and Richard Furze’s business, which they launched in April last year.

Already, the couple, from Shotley Bridge, County Durham, supply the food hall at department store Fenwick, in Newcastle, as well as farm shops, delicatessens and cinemas.

And in a popcorn challenge organised by cinema trade magazine Screen Trade, in London, in June, their cinnamon flavour popcorn was second, beating established large US popcorn producers.

Mrs Furze, a former journalist who only made popcorn for the first time two years ago, said she was delighted with the company’s initial success.

Mrs Furze said: “I was reading a Lionel Shriver novel where everyone featured in it was making popcorn and it whetted my appetite.

“When we tried to buy some savoury popcorn we couldn’t find it anywhere, I still can’t believe no one was doing it.”

It only developed as a business after a conversation with the owner of a delicatessen in their village, who said she would be interested in stocking the popcorn.

Mrs Furze said: “We did a tasting day, asking people what they thought and they seemed to like it. Then they had four people in asking if they could buy it.”

Mr Furze still works in IT, so the couple produce popcorn in the evenings after their two youngest children have gone to bed, and work late into the night cooking, coating, cooling and bagging the products.

Mrs Furze added: “I think the earliest night we had in the run up to supplying Asda was 2.30am.

“We were initially told our popcorn was going into ten Asda stores, then 19.

“We’re still working from the kitchen table, but we’re now at the stage where we are looking at moving out of the kitchen into a unit, probably sometime in the new year.”

The business has been deliberately kept local with a local designer producing their logo and a local wholesaler for distribution.

The range has expanded to five flavours including sweet cinnamon, salty sweet, honey and mustard, hot chilli and garlic and herb.