16 entrepreneurs ‘From nothing to everything’
It is the ultimate rags to riches story. Dr Rami Ranger, MBE, was born two months after his father was assassinated. He was forced to start life in a refugee camp in India with his mother and seven siblings. After immigrating to the UK, he set up his own business from a shed with just £2. Today, he heads up two of the UK’s fastest-growing companies, Sun Mark and Sea, Air & Land Forwarding, based in Greenford, which have a combined turnover of over £150 million. As Sun Mark celebrated an unprecedented fourth consecutive Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, Eleanor Harris heard his incredible story
Dr Rami Ranger, MBE, is founder and chairman of Sun Mark and Sea, Air & Land Forwarding. He was born in 1947 in Punjab, India. His father, Shaheed Nanak Singh, was assassinated in March 1947 whilst trying to save students in a procession against the break-up of India. Ranger graduated with a BA degree from Govt College Chandigarh, and immigrated to the UK in 1971. In 1987 he founded shipping company Sea, Air & Land Forwarding and in 1995 founded Sun Mark, which exports British supermarket products to over 100 countries worldwide. Sea, Air & Land Forwarding received The Queen’s Award for Export in 1999, and Sun Mark won The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Sun Mark was ranked 25th in The Sunday Times Profit Track 100 2012, up from 33 in 2011. Ranger was ranked 785th in The Sunday Times Rich List 2012, his wealth rising from £55m in 2011 to £95m. Ranger is chairman, founder or patron of numerous organisations, including chairman of the Pakistan, India & UK Friendship Forum, chairman of the British Sikh Association and a patron of The Princes Trust. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Preston University, US, for his contribution to business and in 2005 received an MBE for his services to British business and the Asian community.
Let’s go right back to the start of your journey – how did you get to where you are today?
Life brings opportunities and you have to seize them. We were a very affluent family before my father was assassinated and we were reduced to nothing. My mother told me stories about the refugee camp. It was a horrible place but she was tough and educated and accepted the challenge of life and I am alive to tell the story. I came to the UK in 1971 to study law, however that same year the law changed and all foreign students needed to be in the UK three years before they could qualify for a grant, so I took a job in KFC, on a salary of 35p per hour. I worked very hard and they really liked my attitude. In three months I became an assistant manager, in a year I became a manager, and in two years I became a district manager. I then ran a sub post office/newsagents shop but it became very dangerous work as there were robberies and we had a little child, so I gave up my business and went to work at Dixons as a store manager. I saw that there was a guy who was
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making a lot of money shipping electrical goods. People coming to the UK were buying electrical goods and wanted someone to ship them back to their home countries. I thought “I can do that”, and I’m glad I did. You have to take risks in life. I left Dixons and started my own company from nothing; from a shed, with £2 capital. Somebody gave me a desk and a £40 typewriter. I collected goods from various electrical shops and began my freight forwarding business. I was very particular with the packing – I wrapped goods in shrink wrap to protect them from damage, unlike others. It cost me just 10p worth of shrink wrap but brought me very big benefits. Customers recommended me to their family and friends and the business just snowballed.
Can you tell me about the growth and success of your business from there?
The opportunities kept coming and I had to seize them. I was asked to collect grocery items from big supermarkets by my customers for onward shipping to them. There was a lot of demand for British supermarket products all over the world, so I began collecting those and consolidating them into sea containers for various companies. Then, I approached many British companies and asked if they would allow me to market their products to developing countries. I got agency agreements with big companies including Cadbury’s, Unilever and Heinz, and I started marketing their products, and again the business snowballed. Making the products available easily and quickly was the name of the game. And from there I got an idea – as well as marketing these iconic brands, I also started developing my own brands. I realised that I wouldn’t have to pay the huge costs involved with marketing, advertising, sales or distribution.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JULY/AUGUST 2012
As a result I could offer the same products under my label at much cheaper prices to attract a much bigger market. This formula became an instant success. Our philosophy worked, keeping the prices low, building customers’ trust, allowing them as much sampling as possible, and building brands by maintaining quality and taste. I forged strategic alliances with people in as many countries as possible to gain local knowledge and today we are marketing products in 104 countries. This is how a little company has become a global player and is still growing at over 30% a year. As a matter of fact, my business has never slowed down. I have never
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