A couple from Kent who spent years perfecting their children's snack recipe have won a competition to get their products on supermarket shelves.

Charlie Fermor, 35, and his wife Laurie, 34, from Bramley Mount Farm in Ashford won last night's episode of Channel 4's Aldi’s Next Big Thing which sees food and drink suppliers compete for a space on Aldi’s shelves.

They produce dried fruit snacks for kids that are made with only British products, most of which comes from their own orchards and fields in Kent.

In the show, which is hosted by Anita Rani, of Countryfile, and Chris Bavin, of Britain's Best Home Cook, hopeful suppliers compete, before Julie Ashfield, managing director of buying at Aldi, decides on the winner.

Last night was the turn of healthy and wholesome food and drink producers and Freddie’s Farm fruit shapes fought off tough competition from manufacturers of fava bean snacks, kimchi, and even camel milk.

Mr and Mrs Fermor impressed with the taste of their snacks, the paper packaging, as well as health credentials.

The show also gave an insight into their life at Bramley Mount Farm with their son Freddie, six, after whom the snacks are named, and his sister, Ottie, three.

Mrs Fermor explains Freddie was the inspiration behind the idea.

She said: "When Freddie was little, we didn’t like the snacks that were out there in the market so we came up with Freddie’s Farm.

"The drying process has been perfected over a long time so it’s quite special.

"We try to keep the flavours you get in raw fruit and veg.

"As a result, we have lower free sugars, which help prevent kids getting sugar highs and crashes, which we certainly like to avoid with our two at all costs.”

With everything grown, dried and packed within metres of their home, the carbon footprint also appealed to judges as Aldi has been a carbon neutral business since 2019.

However, to secure the contract the small business had to scale up significantly to meet the order of 325,000 packs – more than 10 times bigger than their previous largest order.

During the show, Mr and Mrs Fermor had to find ways to overcome the hurdle.

Not only does their work depend on a good harvest, but they also need to wait four to six weeks for the unique paper packaging to arrive.

With their current machinery they would also need to be packing for 16 days straight to pack enough to meet Aldi’s order alone – a problem that could only be fixed by purchasing expensive new machinery.

However, Julie decided to take a risk on the Kent farmers which has now paid off.

Mr Fermor, said: “It’s just been such a long time getting to this point.

"I started the journey as a student studying agriculture at Reading University.

"I took such a risk when I invested in our unique dehydrating machine.

"Then with the pandemic happening just as business was taking off, at one point we thought we’d never get here.

"Actually during the show we’d convinced ourselves we hadn’t won, but when Julie announced our name it was crazy.

"We can’t be happier, and it was so exciting to tell the kids – we can’t wait to get them down to an Aldi store to see it on the shelf now!”

Aldi's Julie Ashfield said: “It’s a fantastic product. It just ticks every single box.

"It’s made in Britain by British farmers, using British produce.

"It’s a healthy snack that I’d be happy to give to my children.”

Freddie's Farm snacks are available to buy at Aldi supermarkets from today.

Aldi’s Next Big Thing airs on Channel 4, every Thursday at 8pm until November 24.