Matt Davies claims his Yoke Shopper device makes carrying heavy shopping bags a breeze

When Matt Davies did his weekly food shop while at university 12 years ago he carried it home because he couldn't afford a car. The result? Sore hands. "I used to take off my belt, thread my shopping bags on to it and put it on my shoulder—it was pretty unsophisticated," he says.

But it gave him the idea for the Yoke Shopper, a gadget that locks bags together. You carry the device in your hand or pull out an adjustable strap and carry it over a shoulder or across the body. The weight of the bags is evenly distributed making the journey comfortable. "Once people see the Yoke Shopper there's a eureka moment," claims Davies, who sold 500 devices in the first month through his website, yokeshopper.com. "What's been interesting is the number of people in different countries picking up on it," he says.

It has also caught the attention of the Welsh Assembly government, which has part-funded the £60,000 it has cost to bring the Yoke Shopper to market. Davies has enlisted a design agency, patent attorney and branding agency, and is now talking to distributors. "There's a lot of interest from the corporate branded market," he adds.

Davies has Amazon and eBay lined up, although he wants to see his website more established first. "I want my budget to generate traffic to my site otherwise someone like Amazon will be above me every time and I'll always be driving traffic to their brand."