Derbyshire vacuum engineer takes comedic videos to social media with sidekick Henry to boost business

Jonny Marsh, owner of Ashfield Appliance Spares Ltd, has been repairing Numatic’s Henry vacuum cleaners since 2010.

During lockdown, Jonny, aged 39, and his partner Jade Grafton, aged 34, moved the business out of Ashfield and onto their website HenryBags.co.uk to sell Henry parts all over the country.

Jonny, who lives in South Normanton, has created videos on Youtube to help teach others how to make basic repairs to keep their smiling cleaners working.

Although enjoying the flexibility of working from home, Jonny has started to show Henry more of the world by partnering up with other businesses to create fun videos for their Henry fan page on Facebook.

Together they have already created three hilarious videos after their recent trips to Sherwood Forest Fun Park, Asylum Skatepark, and Pop n Roll Desserts - and there are several more planned.

Jonny said: “I've always been trying to share funny photos, whether I've had them sent in or whether I've done them myself.

“Then I did this random week where Henry got fed up with being a vacuum cleaner, so he went out to work, and each day we went to a different workplace.

“It was a bit hard to get the week complete, but it just gave me the idea that if you take photos or videos of him being a real person, doing normal everyday things, it seems to go down well.”

Each video has received hundreds of likes, comments and shares on both Facebook and TikTok. However, he admitted the response has not been completely unanimous, with his children, aged 11 and eight, feeling “a little bit embarrassed” that their dad is on social media.

Jonny is reaching out to more businesses and venues in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire so he can continue capturing videos and photos – though he said the emails might look like a “wind up”.

He said “it's just something to make people smile”, while helping out both businesses. Some of these companies have got more followers than us, but it means that we get a little bit of a funny video and an advertisement if you like, and they get something for their followers to see.”