ROD Hall keeps the wheels of the green machines turning smoothly.

He is managing director of Urchin Ltd, a sports lubricant company of Main Street, Wheldrake, which is pitching for the Think Green Business Of The Year title in The Press Business Awards 2008.

Having been involved in importing sports equipment since 2000, Rod’s company attended the 2006 Munich Sports Exhibition, where it was so impressed with Brunox AG of Switzerland’s range of environmentally safer sports lubricants and anti-corrosion coatings, that it asked for and was granted the UK distribution rights.

For the past three years Urchin Ltd has targeted the UK cycle industry and business has been booming. It has generated significant sales to Chain Reaction Ltd, the nation’s biggest cycle accessory supplier and to top internet supplier, Hotlines.

Rod said: “Even our local top cycle shop, York Cycleworks, has taken to the products with very encouraging comments about quality and superb performance, particularly from its mechanics. It would appear the Brunox Turbo Spray should be in every mechanic’s toolbox.”

The lubricants are free of silicon, teflon or graphite, compounds which do not easily decompose.

“With cycling widely recognised as being the best alternative mode of transport to the car, we feel we can take a step further by providing the best lubricants and oils in the world to complement the efforts needed to reduce carbon emission and damage to the planet,” said Rod.

Urchin Ltd also supplies industrial lubricants and anti-rust coatings for ships, cars, plant equipment and food processing machinery, all formulated to have less impact on the environment.

It is supporting the five-week Jane Tomlinson appeal ride from Turkey to Leeds, which starts on July 25.

Its lubricants have been selected by the nine riders to get them safely through the 2,500-mile journey.