31 January 2024 , 15:39
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A humble jacket potato seller, known as Spudman, has become a global TikTok sensation with customers now waiting three hours to get their hands on his famous spuds.
People from as far away as the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia have been visiting Ben Newman's modest jacket potato van in Tamworth, Staffordshire after his videos have taken the internet by storm, attracting visitors from across the globe.
The 39-year-old now sells up to 1,500 jackets a day, priced between £4 to £5 each. He has amassed 2.6 million followers and 41.6 million likes on TikTok. Ben, a father-of-nine, admits he joined TikTok to keep an eye on his children. He never expected to become a tourist attraction for young people.
His simple videos sharing culinary tips and daily life as a jacket potato vendor have exploded in popularity. He even has a personal fanbase in Hawaii. Ben, from Burton-upon-Trent, Staffs., said: "I still can't quite get my head around what's happening. It's just been crazy and absolutely mind-blowing. I have no social media training or experience. When my son, who is now 16, put TikTok in front of me I just thought 'I need to keep an eye on you on this'."
Archie Povey, Bill Bellamy and Lewis Rochelle enjoying their spuds (No credit)"But I soon realised it wasn't just for dancing girls, so I uploaded a few videos of me making a potato using just a Go-Pro and a decent camera. When they began hitting a few thousand views each I thought I could use this to promote the business. But I never expected what happened next."
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"It was October and we had around 400,000 followers, which I was chuffed with to be honest, then all of a sudden it started to explode. For no real reason that I'm aware of, some videos were getting millions of views. One has had almost 100million views. We worked out if you sat down to watch that video 100million times, you'd be watching it for 60 years."
The regular queue (No credit)
Ben Newman and his potatoes (No credit)"All of a sudden people from across the world were turning up - from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and USA. The most surreal moment was this couple from Malaysia, who hadn't come to the UK for a holiday - they came just solely to see me. They caught a flight to Gatwick and then hired a car to drive to little old Tamworth solely for a jacket potato."
"The amount of people I've been able to connect with and meet from all over the world is just crazy and incredibly humbling. Every single customer has been awesome. Its not just millennials, we have middle-aged families here too. We've become a tourist attraction. Our best seller is probably the classic cheese and beans."
Spud Man merchandise, including keyrings, tote bags, aprons and clothing, is now being sold online. "It has opened up some incredible opportunities for me. I honestly can't walk through town anymore without being stopped."