FORMER university friends and design graduates, Mat Foster and Mat Chaloner decided to start their own venture after becoming frustrated at not having enough control over their creative efforts.

Mr Chaloner did ice sculpting on the set of the James Bond movie, Die Another Day, and Mr Foster had worked on costumes for the Harry Potter films.

The duo then travelled to New Zealand and Australia, where they gained inspiration for and experience of making ice sculptures. They then returned to Liverpool to launch Glacial Art.

The company specialises in making spectacular art sculptures for special occasions, both private and corporate events.

They established the business last July after getting funding from HSBC, and £10,000 from Merseyside Special Investment Fund’s small firms fund, which was used to buy a special ice machine from the USA.

Mr Foster said: “Mat and I were both working in London, but felt we were being allowed little creative input into the work we were doing.

“We decided to look at setting up our own business and it was a toss-up between Liverpool and Manchester. Things started to come together for us in Liverpool and we got great help from a consultancy called Blue Orchid which helped us put together a business plan.

“It surprised me how long that took, six weeks, but it was well worth it because it clearly did the trick with HSBC.

“Now things are moving along really well and we are doing work all over the country. It has been a steep learning curve and we are still learning.”