entrepreneurs 25


Photographs by Angus Thomas


invest in some units and brought my father-in-law into the business and then invested heavily in people, infrastructure and capabilities.


Every year we’ve grown by a minimum of 30% and doubled our profits at the same time. I like to think I grew the business the old fashioned way, working really hard and now I believe we’re light years ahead of our biggest competitors.


What’s important to you?


You have to look after your staff, there’s no point in making money if you don’t share it. Everyone has a development plan and if we’re on budget we reward them every quarter. At the end of the year, I share a large percentage of our net profit – we have 16 people in the team and I love rewarding them for their efforts.


I firmly believe that if you’re tight with your money, then people will be tight with their time. We’re also very flexible on hours and we employ a lot of return to work mums and older people who have a wealth of valuable experience.


How do you give back to the community?


Growing up poor had a big impact on me and I give a lot to charity. I am aiming to do lots of good things each year for different charities, which can be from £10 to £1000, as long as it’s a worthwhile cause, and I also sponsor my son’s rugby team. I believe it’s good to help people who are less fortunate and I’m also planning doing a lot with schools. My old school in Cox Green, Maidenhead, has invited me back to talk to them and I’m hoping to go to senior schools in Newbury and talk about being an entrepreneur.


Tell us about your role as chairman of the British Society of Baking


It keeps me very busy. It’s all about how we


can attract more youngsters into the food industry and inspire them for the future. Our main focus is helping the future of our industry find employment and to learn valuable business skills.


It’s a great role for me and I certainly have a pretty full agenda.


What are your plans for the future? Currently ITS turnover is north of £3 million and I’d like to take it to £10m over the next three years. We have a fantastic group of people and our growth is phenomenal. Most of our business is in the UK but we are growing extremely fast internationally in places such as Spain, Germany, Holland, America and Australia and India.


I want to grow as a family business, I am still very young and determined to develop ITS further with my world-class team. My


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – DECEMBER 15/JANUARY 16


daughter is 11, she is really into making cakes and says she wants to study food technology, so who knows, we might be working together before too long.


How would you describe yourself?


Fun, caring and passionate in everything I do.


What do you do to unwind? I used to play a lot of rugby, boxing and American football, over the years I’ve broken 14 bones in contact sports. Now I coach rugby, play squash, run and go to the gym and try to be sensible about what I eat.


I work very hard so I appreciate the value of time out – I love cooking; it’s a lovely thing to put food in the slow cooker and go out for a walk. In January my wife and I divorced and that was very tough, but we share the children and I work very hard to be a good dad. I also have a fantastic girlfriend who has inspired me to push on and chase my dreams.


I’m a big fan of active rest and have built my own craft brewery and bar at home which is popular with my friends.


I only need 5-6 hours’ good sleep a night and I try to make use of every minute of the day.


What’s your favourite flavour?


As food it has to be tapas because it’s so much fun to make and it means so many different things.


What’s your philosophy?


You have to decide what you want out of life and make sure you take time to smell the flowers. Don’t miss the beautiful moments.


Details: www.itstaste.com www.businessmag.co.uk


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