An electrician furloughed at Southend Airport has built and designed his own gym clothing website.

Matthew Mulhearn has created Perrky Clothing, a website dedicated to selling women’s gymwear.

Braintree and Witham Times:

Modelled - Matthew Mulhearn has created Perrky Clothing, a website dedicated to selling women’s gymwear

The 32-year-old father of four has been at home with his children since shortly after lockdown began, and became inspired to use his time productively.

Mr Mulhearn, of Hockley, said: “It’s taken quite a bit of time to get it all together.

“I have been thinking for a while about doing something like this.

“I had seen people talking about wanting to tone up and get back into the gym, so far it’s had really good feedback.

“I was self-employed for 15 years, but took a pay cut to join the airport, and ended up falling in love with the job.

“Most of this has been done by myself on my computer at home, it’s taken about three to four weeks to get going.”

Mr Mulhearn launched the site at the beginning of last week, having designed the clothing himself, and built the website from home.

He is working with a carrier service to get the orders shipped out, and if the business grows he plans to continue it in the long term.

He said: “I was researching online how to start a successful brand through various YouTube videos.

“It got to the stage where I woke up one morning and thought ‘I just have to do this’.

“It’s been quite a learning curve and a lot of work. I’ve been up until about three or four in the morning just working on it, including when I wrote out a business plan.”

Mr Mulhearn has been homeschooling his four children aged five, six, eight and 11 at the same time.

He added: “It shows that anything can be possible and the sales are steadily coming in and the brand is seeing good feedback with the potential to grow into a world leading brand.

“It’s good to try to achieve something if you’re spending this time at home, otherwise it’s a waste.”

Visit perrky.com to see the collection.