A TRUCK driver's hobby has become a multi-million pound business and made him the country's biggest manufacturer of chicken houses.

George Purdew made himself a chicken house when he found the cheapest one on the market cost more than £800. His neighbours asked him to make one for them, and now he employs 18 staff, has five units at Chislet Park, near Canterbury, and the company is still growing.

And now, the man who has become known as Chicken George plans to introduce his products into America next year.

Mr Purdew said that at first, when he was a truck driver, he made the chicken houses in his spare time. "Pretty soon I didn't have any spare time and had to take time off to carry on," he said. "I couldn't do it in my shed any more, and moved to an industrial unit on the farm where I live."

Mr Purdew has 65 agents selling his products around the country on behalf of the New Chislet Workshop, bringing in £1 million a year. He hopes to have 150 agents this time next year, and has set a target of 300.

"It's great for the agents as well as for us," he said. "We've got farmers who use it to keep them going when their farms are not making money. One is making £1,400 a week in commission.

"We are coming up with new designs all the time and have the only chicken house which can be dismantled, and which you can get spare parts for."

Mr Purdew also runs the One Stop Chicken Shop, which sells all kinds of poultry-keeping items including a device for determining their sex.

"At the moment we are making 100-150 chicken houses a week, and we are going to need a bigger premises soon," he said. "I would like to stay local though because I have good staff and I like this area."

He moved to Chislet with his wife five years ago after the barge they lived on near Chatham sank.

Big business is in the blood for Mr Purdew. His father was a top architect and his mother owns a health farm group worth £100 million.