RETIRED steelworker Roger McAteer (pictured) hopes he may soon be on the verge of making a fortune out of other people's lack of enthusiasm.

'Fortune' is perhaps too strong a word because the 54-year-old, from Duckpool Road, Newport, is determined to tread warily as a first-time businessman.

But it does encapsulate what, on paper at least, look like exciting prospects. He is planning to do people's shopping for them on the basis that it is something that most of them hate doing themselves.

Like all slightly zany ideas, it opens out the more you think about it. And it has certainly caught the imagination of Prime-Cymru, the group set up to encourage the over-50s to become entrepreneurs.

Mr McAteer retired early at the end of the 1990s. "I took redundancy when I was 50," he said. "Thirty-four years of night shifts was enough for anyone.

"The first couple of months not working were a novelty, but I was missing working every day. My parents were in the beer trade and I was always helping out when I was younger. I was running out of things to do around the house and I just wanted something to occupy myself.

"A couple of months back, I was shopping in a supermarket. I looked around me and realised that most of the people seemed as if they didn't want to be there. Now, I don't mind shopping and I thought to myself: What if they could get someone to do their shopping for them?

"I decided that I could ask people to phone me and tell me what they wanted. Then I could shop for them and deliver. I thought of it as a bespoke shopping service."

It was around this time that Mr McAteer heard about Prime-Cymru on the radio. He contacted them and businessman Keith Jones, from Newport, was assigned to his case. Mr Jones has suggested that Mr McAteer targets offices and other places where lots of people work. Some of these have creches, indicating that there are people working there whose time is precious and who might benefit from the service.

"When Roger mentioned his idea, I consulted with a colleague and we thought it was great," Mr Jones said. "We have helped with accounts, setting up the business, the structure of the business and generally talking through what the market will be." Mr McAteer's status as someone who has retired early is one of the categories identified by Prime-Cymru as being a source of people who might want to work for themselves for the first time.

After the initial help and directions, Mr Jones will be in constant touch with Mr McAteer to make sure that progress is being maintained and to sort out problems along the way. "The scheme would operate on a CoD basis, and this will involve a lot of trust," said Mr McAteer. "I will take the order, do the shopping and the customer will pay me when I deliver. I will be a stranger to them but they will also be strangers to me.

"I am also toying with the idea of doing not just food shopping. For instance, some people may want to take things to the cleaners and haven't got time. Someone suggested that there might be a concert in Newport and people might not want to queue for tickets - I could do that for them. I am going to spend a few days targeting places where there are large groups of people working full-time in and around Newport."

The two have even discussed competition that already exists - supermarkets and the Internet - and decided that this can be met.

They are considering a sliding scale of charges along the following lines - £3.50 for up to £10 worth of shopping; £4 (£10 to £20); £4.50 (£20-£30); and £5 (£30-plus). lPrime-Cymru is based at Llandovery (01550 721813) but Keith Jones can be contacted on 07889 264678, e-mail mrkeithjones@aol.com