Member Article

Graduate comes to the aid of the absent-minded

An absent-minded graduate is coming to the rescue of fellow forgetful people with a unique business idea to return lost items to their owners. Daniel McCadden, a graduate from Northumbria University’s BA (Hons) in Business with Marketing, has set up Recovered – a lost and found service which helps customers get back their missing possessions.

Recovered sells a pack which is made up of eight labels that fits perfectly onto almost any item that is of value and vulnerable to getting lost. In addition, the pack includes a key ring and a wallet insert, each containing a unique ID number which relates to the customer’s valuable items.

By attaching a unique ID label to important or valuable items, if something is misplaced, the label tells the finder how to return it easily. To act as an incentive Recovered offers them a reward to return the valuables. A courier is then sent to retrieve the goods and return them to their rightful owner.

Daniel said: “I had initially thought that my current customer base, of which the majority is made up of students, would start attaching the stickers to unusual things but so far I haven’t come across anything startling.

“Privacy is a big issue and we take dealing with our customers identities very seriously, therefore we ensure that both finders’ and owners’ personal information stays private, with Recovered acting as an intermediary.”

Roger Candy, from Northumbria University’s Enterprise Campus, who advised Daniel on how to start his business, said: “The Enterprise Campus was extremely well placed to provide advice to Daniel as we have a whole host of specialist industry support from which to draw upon. I have been very impressed with Daniel’s unique business idea which is practical and achievable especially amongst the student market. I hope he continues to make inroads into this very profitable market.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .