Business success stories from Britain’s best
As all entrepreneurs know, every journey begins with a single step – and empires can be built from the most modest amount of savings.
Some of Britain’s most successful brands started from next to nothing, illustrating that with ingenuity, determination and resourcefulness, great businesses can be created in the garden shed or in the back of a van.
Amstrad
Alan Sugar started building his business empire in the back of a van he bought for £50, along with £40 worth of car aerials which he began selling. That was the start of Amstrad (Alan Michael Sugar Trading Company).
In 1968 Amstrad began manufacturing, initially low-priced hi-fi turntable covers, and subsequently home computers. In 1980, the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange, and after diversifying into the telecoms market, in 2007 the business was sold to Sky for £125m.
Hargreaves Lansdown
One of the UK’s most successful investment firms, Hargreaves Lansdown emerged from the most humble of beginnings; the spare bedroom of Bristol-based co-founder Peter Hargreaves. With just £500 initial capital and a single phone, he and his friend and business partner Stephen Lansdown began their start-up which went on to become a business giant.
Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown of investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown
Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown.
In 2007, the company was floated on the London stock market, valued at £800m. In the year to the end of June 2015 profits before tax exceeded £199m.
Virgin Group
Sir Richard Branson, the entrepreneur behind one of the world’s most iconic brands, started his business career in a church crypt.
At the age of 15, he published a student magazine, borrowing £300 from his mother to launch it, and running operations from a local church that a vicar let him use.
British businessman Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group
Richard Branson started his business career in a church crypt.
“To get it started, all it took was a few pennies to call advertisers and contributors from the school phone box, a lot of determination, and a bit of luck,” he wrote in a blog marking the 45th anniversary of the first issue in 2013.
Today his Virgin Group holds more than 200 companies, including Virgin Trains and Virgin Atlantic.
Carphone Warehouse
Charles Dunstone founded Carphone Warehouse in 1989, when most mobile phones were still the size of house bricks. Investing £6,000 of his savings, Dunstone launched a business selling mobile phones from his flat.
Businessman Charles Dunstone founded Carphone Warehouse in 1989
Charles Dunstone launched Carphone Warehouse with his savings.
“I was just trying to make a living. I certainly didn't realise that mobile phones were going to become a mass-consumer product. I was lucky; I caught the wave,” he said in an interview.
Today Carphone Warehouse is Europe’s largest independent mobile phone retailer. In July 2000 the company floated on the London Stock Exchange and was valued at approximately £1.7bn.
Dyson
The garden shed is usually a place to escape to and hide among garden tools and the odd tin of paint, but for British inventor James Dyson it was the workshop where, in the early 1980s, he set out to turn his vision of a bagless vacuum cleaner into reality. Five years and 5,127 prototypes later, the world’s first cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner arrived.
British inventor James Dyson
James Dyson started his business in his garden shed.
Dyson then spent two more years scouring UK and Europe for someone to license the product, before taking it to Japan. Income from the Japanese licence eventually enabled him to manufacture a new model under his own name in the UK.
Still privately owned, last year Dyson announced profits of £367m, up 13pc.
Story credit to The Telegraph by Alison Coleman - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/small-business-benefits/success-stories/