IMAGINE the scene – a typical building site, bricklayers busy building up walls, scaffolding covering half-built buildings ... usually a hive of industry punctuated by radios blaring, nails being hammered in, forklift trucks reversing. But have you ever stopped to think what could go wrong?

Building sites are dangerous places, and it's coping with accidents and trying to prevent them that prompted Peter Bell of Cinderford-based builders K.W. Bell & Son Ltd to look for a solution to site accidents.

That's how Forest Safety Products was born. A simple idea – and one that's proved the start of a whole new business venture for Peter and his colleagues.

Forest Safety Products, now based in Gloucester, manufactures and distributes the trade-marked Soft Landing System, an intriguing system of interlocking, filled cushions – giant bean bags – which can be installed in minutes in any construction situation.

They help to prevent or minimise injuries from being sustained if a worker falls from height, perhaps from joists or roof in a semi-constructed property.

"We first came up with the idea when looking at a parcel which had been delivered, which was full of those packing pieces of polystyrene," says Peter. "And once we thought of a new use for them, the idea just mushroomed."

They sent a prototype to the Patent Office, and in 2000 the Soft Landing System became a patented product in its own right.

"Initially we worked from home, ringing around our contacts in the building industry, and when we realised the potential for our product we knew we would have to find our own premises," says Mike Stephens, sales director, another of the Forest Safety Products team.

"We started off contracting out the production to a local firm, but as the bags got more and more popular we had to take out a lease on a unit and commence production ourselves. We now employ our own staff, extra personnel from a local agency and use several local haulage companies."

Forest Safety Products now have Soft Landing Systems installed all over the country, from Edinburgh to the Isle of Wight, and the product is used by national and local builders alike.

They are looking to expand into Europe, with France and Holland being their first stops.

Last week Forest Safety Products celebrated being named in the finals of the HSBC Start-up Stars awards.

The overall winner will be announced at a dinner being held at London's Savoy Hotel next month.