West Sussex firm Prosperity Brownies has started supplying nine Waitrose stores in Sussex with its brownies and flapjacks this month.

Launched in stores on 17 May were two brownie lines original and dark chocolate and raspberry and two lines of its recently developed flapjack range Prosperity Jacks, in dark chocolate and ginger, and apricot and sultana varieties.

Paul Hatcher, who runs the business with his wife Jane, said Waitrose has always been one of the company’s "prize prospects", and, ideally, he would like to see these products in "every single Waitrose in the country".

The firm made contact with Waitrose local and regional product manager Tracey Marshall last July, before meeting her at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair in September.

"We sent her samples of the brownies and she loved them, and we just went from there," said Hatcher. "We accept a minimum order of a case 48 units,

and Waitrose’s first order was for one case of each line for each of the nine stores. "For us, that is a significant order."