THREE friends who met up at Bristol University have just clinched a deal with Chelsea Football Club to supply energy bars to the players.

The trio – Nick Bildner, Simon Ashburner and Ben Lewis – launched a wholefood snacks business just a couple of years ago after initially going their separate ways after graduating.

But as students they had always enjoyed devising meals after lectures, and even talked about running their own business one day.

Eventually they decided to give up their careers and set up Pulsin', which started with them experimenting with recipes in a friend's kitchen.

Now Ben, 29, Simon and Nick, both 30, have a factory in Gloucestershire and produce about 6,000 healthy snacks a day, including high energy and sports recovery bars.

They have four staff, as well as employing casual labour when necessary, and the snacks are sold in more than 200 stores around the country.

Nick, who lives just off Whiteladies Road in Clifton and is the company's sales director, said they were sold mostly in independent shops such as Wild Oats in Lower Redland Road.

He said: "They are also stocked in delis and coffee shops and we were really pleased when Chelsea came to us to ask if we could produce their own brand of bar.

"The club's nutritionist had tried one of ours in London and called us."

Nick, who grew up in New York and later moved to London before starting university, said Pulsin' developed a recipe for the club over about three months.

He said: "We are still quite a small business but hope to expand and get into more places in Europe."

Before setting up the company, Nick was a psychologist. Simon, of Bisley, near Stroud, was a management consultant and is now commercial director, while Ben, of Stroud, still uses his skills as a nutritionist to develop the range of products.