TWO local mums have defied the dragons after their handmade marmalade has been scooped up by Sainsbury’s despite Dragon’s Den dismissing it.

Nikki Frith and Lindsey Oldroyd met at the nursery gates of the Mulberry Bush in Tottington in 2013 and since then they have created a brand of marmalade that has gone national.

Mrs Frith made the first pan of the original three fruit marmalade in her Ramsbottom kitchen in 2012 with a longstanding family recipe sourced from her husband James's granny, Marjorie Richardson.

A month later and Granny Marmalade, as it was then known, was being sold in local farmers markets.

After the product was snapped up by Booths and Selfridges the BBC approached the pair to appear on Dragon's Den last year.

The 37-year-old said: "They all seemed impressed with the product but they weren't convinced with the branding and the name and they didn't think we would change it so they didn't invest.

"Peter Jones even said: 'you have a fantastic product, but this will only ever be regional.'"

But the mums didn't let that deter them and instead used it as motivation.

Mrs Frith added: "We really wanted to learn from the experience, we were obviously gutted that they wouldn't invest but we wanted something positive to come out of it so we decided to rebrand."

Following the rebranding Mrs Frith approached Sainsbury's and pitched to one of their buyers.

Mrs Frith said: "It was quite a lengthy process and it will be nine months from the pitch to it being on the shelf but it's really exciting.

"The consensus from everyone at Sainsbury's was that we could be the next big brand. We have shown that you can make a homemade product and take it national."

Originally the marmalade was made in Mrs Frith's Whalley Road home but as the brand expanded the pair employed seven women to work in the Marmalade Shed.

The ladies hand cut the fruit and also put the labels on by hand.

She said: "We will be looking at employing more people as we continue to expand. At the minute Sainsbury's have only taken on two flavours but if it goes as well as we hope then they could be stocking more.

"We have achieved something that people kept saying we wouldn't be able to do and that's bringing a homemade product to the national market.

"To have come up with the idea and to have taken it national just feels fantastic and we're super excited to see it on the shelves."

Despite Mr Jones' words Mrs Frith said there were no hard feelings towards the Dragon, she said: "It feels great to prove him wrong of course, I hope that when he sees it on the shelves he regrets not investing.

"But without his comments we wouldn't be where we are now."

Granny Cool is due to hit the shelves in 339 Sainsbury's stores on June 19.