Mobile company Bullitt to fire in China Navigating the challenging smartphone terrain should have been daunting. Dell and HP are just some of the big brands that quit the smartphone industry over the past decade, with the mobile division of the Japanese consumer electronics company Panasonic posting an 8.1bn yen (£48m) loss when it pulled the plug. "We looked around having seen so many compete and fail and asked ourselves the question, how do we tackle this market differently so we can succeed," said Batt. Big players have to give huge volume so the product is very generic - we looked for a niche market where the volumes were not quite big enough to attract such companies and settled upon rugged smartphones. Self-funded in the start and now backed by the Business Growth Fund, carefully chosen strategic partnerships also helped these entrepreneurs scale barriers to entry. Bullitt sells hundreds of thousands of units globally and is now worldwide licensee for Cat and JCB. The trio of mobile fanatics met as part of a rescue team tasked with the turnaround of Freeplay, the commercialisation of inventor Trevor Baylis's wind-up radio. They transformed it from a £24m loss-making operation and sold it to an Indian family. Despite years of experience working with big retailers such as Dixons and John Lewis, it took a few glasses of wine before commercial director Wharton, 41, picked up the phone to the giant Caterpillar brand switchboard and asked for the head of brand licensing. Caterpillar isn't just a fashion label. In 1969 its engines supplied the power for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. So while the response to Bullitt's concept was positive, there were concerns that any technical issues with the product could affect its core business. "We had to work out what made a Cat phone look like a Cat phone without the badges on it," explained Wharton. We had to understand their design language and brand DNA. And a relationship was forged where the two industrial design teams worked side by side. The first Bullitt-Cat product was launched in 2012 and sales leapt to £10m for that financial year. Turnover has increased threefold to £30m for 2013. Our rapid growth lies with outdoor pursuit hobbyists and those who use their phone as a work tool in heavy industry. While we do sell to members of the military, we remain focused on our sweetspot," said Floyd, 51. While the military has not yet been a marketing target, Bullitt phones have passed "milspec," a range of tests trialling its capability in salty conditions, extreme temperatures and in sand. Buyers of rugged phones have predominantly been male, however a new line of female-orientated products is coming on the market with Ted Baker in the spring, to broaden Bullitt's appeal. Bullitt also makes phone accessories and audio products such as headphones, Bluetooth speakers and DAB radios. Wharton said: "The business seems skewed towards rugged, and so male, products for now, but our vision over the next three years is that we will have an enlarged portfolio of brands and products that address a broad range of demographics." The company has offices in Reading, New York, Chicago, San Paolo, Dusseldorf and Marseille, and factories in Shenzhen and Taipei, exporting to mainland Europe, Scandinavia, the US, South Africa and India. "The Cat brand has enabled us to work with top-tier vendors in China but it's hard for Western brands to sell into the region, as the Government is very protectionist, and there are barriers to e-commerce businesses," said Wharton. But next year we are finally launching over there. And Bullitt is expanding the weapons in its armoury ahead of this invasion. Last week it announced the appointment of Scott Cheng, an expert in the Asian mobile market, whose most recent role was president of Commtiva Technology in Taiwan. Asked if there was ever a case of excess testosterone in the boardroom, Wharton said: "We are very different people, but we have complementary skills sets and it just works, although we don't tend to socialise together." And the three makers of these macho, rugged mobiles speak tenderly about their products. "We all loved mobile and knew we wanted to start a company in that industry," said Batt. After all, a smartphone is the thing people touch the most times in any one day.