Spring may be just around the corner, but for some that simply means hayfever. Now an Oxfordshire company has come up with a revolutionary device to help sufferers fight it and win.

Aerstream, which employs 13 full-time staff at the Wallingford offices into which it moved last year, will shortly see its product, Cleanaer, go on sale at Boots stores after winning the seal of approval from the British Allergy Foundation.

The company, which will this year achieve a £3.5m turnover (up from £1.6m last year), is aiming to increase its workforce by 30 per cent. It is actively looking for electronic engineers to add to a team that already contains three people with PhDs.

Founder and inventor Alastair Pirrie said: "What's revolutionary is that Cleanaer does not just mask airborne nasties but actually gets rid of things that cause allergies."

He himself has a PhD from Oxford and originally worked in electrostatics before coming up with an idea that he reckoned was commercially viable.

He said: "I put the idea to some entrepreneurs and business angels back in 2001 and it has grown from there."

Chief executive Alan Jones, who himself has a business angel background, came on board in 2006 - just when the going got easy, I quipped.

"Not at all, quite the reverse," he countered.

He added: "In marketing terms Cleanaer is something called Disruptive Technology. Established competitors use Aerosol technology.

"Pushing something new into this market under our own brand name is more costly and disrupts the existing market but will be better in the long run."

The technology works by removing foreign bodies from the air rather than by simply disguising them with superficial smells.

Between 2001-2006 the company worked in the industrial arena only, with its fresh air products going into office and factory washrooms.

Even those possessed anti-allergy properties but they weren't marketed as such.

Mr Jones said: "We had to prove that the device really did do what we said it would do. That was the biggest issue - showing that it would take out the pollutant in the air."

Now, with the seal of approval from the Foundation, Mr Jones reckons the company has something to shout about.

He admitted that a cloakroom air freshener had not been that exciting for the media, even though the product in fact contained unknown new technology!

Mr Jones said: "Now we are getting testimonials from people saying they are getting a good night's sleep at last, or that they can be near cats for the first time in years!"

The device, which will cost £29.99, is battery operated and is being made in China. It needs a new £5.99 cartridge every 60 days This patented product sends out a plume of charged droplets which attract pollutants and airborne particles causing them to fall to the floor.

Mr Pirrie reckons the technology, based on liquid ions, could in time destroy much of the aerosol market - which could still be good for the environment even though most aerosols no longer contain harmful CFC gases.

He said: "I sometimes think that restaurants could start introducing allergy-free zones. There are endless possibilities."

But can the thing go in cars? That was the question to which a photographer at this magazine wanted to know the answer. A hayfever sufferer, he has for years dreaded Spring and Summer and been forced to drive about with the windows tight shut.

Mr Jones said: "We're working on that - I spilled some fish on the carpet in my car and got rid of the smell by using Cleanaer."

n Contact: Aerstream 01491 838326 www.cleanaer.com