New babies always require shopping trips, but a fourth child meant a heftier investment, as Kevin Macliver discovered when his family was set to expand to six.

They needed a new car. “I quickly discovered that the typical seven-seater wasn’t the answer,” he says. “One of the kids ended up stuck in the very back, effectively in the car’s crumple zone. And to make matters worse, you’d lose most of the boot space—just when a growing family actually needs more of it, not less.”

At the time, Macliver was running an engineering and energy consultancy. “As a design engineer, I looked at the standard back seat and thought: if it can comfortably seat three rugby players, surely it can fit four children.”

His engineering company began developing prototypes of a system that could turn the rear of any car—from Ford to Ferrari—into one capable of carrying three or four children in safe, integrated car seats.

The result was Multimac, a business that now manufactures and fits over £2.5 million worth of seats into cars around the world each year. But the journey from inspiration to safety approval was a long one. The baby who inspired the idea was 13 by the time Multimac was finally approved for use.

 “There was a 200-page testing standard for single child seats, and no one else made a multiple,” recalls Macliver, now 73. He spent two years lobbying groups including the Department for Transport. “Eventually, the EU government asked me to crash test it in Sweden, the world centre for child safety, and we finally got approval.”

The business was entirely self-funded. Macliver invested £750,000 to launch Multimac, including securing patents, and officially launched in 2009. At the time, he was still juggling Multimac with his consultancy work.

 “I had two phones, one for each company. Potential seat customers would call while I was in meetings discussing how much energy I could save a firm. I’d be asking the caller, ‘What is your car? How old are your children? When is the new one due?’ The people around me would look at me quizzically. I often wondered if the people calling to order a Multimac realised it was basically a half-person company.”

Word of mouth helped drive early growth, boosted by press reviews and high-profile customers including TV star Claudia Winkleman. Within four months, Multimacs were fitted in cars in South Africa, New Zealand, Moscow and across the EU.

 Today, Macliver has major expansion ambitions. “Multimac has a far bigger image than its turnover would suggest,” he says. “It’s known to be expensive, safe and high quality, so we could easily expand into complementary child products like strollers, furniture, educational toys and more.”

 Multimac has just four staff at its Birmingham headquarters. But Macliver sees the potential for a strong family business. “My children are involved in supply chain, sales and marketing, operations and accountancy. We could have a great family business.” The fourth baby who inspired Multimac may soon be helping to build it.

Read more about Multimac via their website and read more of our scaleup stories here.

Founder of Multimac - Kevin Macliver