26 entrepreneurs


A positive and charitable approach is at the heart of Sharma’s succcess


Having arrived in the UK from Kenya with his family as a teenager, Kiren Sharma crowned a fantastic year in 2015 when he was awarded an MBE for services to business and charity, and became the first recipient of the Lord Montgomery Award from ABF The Soldier’s Charity for his 'exceptional work with the army'. Extremely modest but very proud, he is the founder of the multi-million pound Reading-based Gravity Group of companies. As recruitment specialists across a wide range of sectors, the group celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2013 and, although now taking a step back from the day-to-day business, the philanthropist and family man certainly knows how to keep busy. Alison Dewar found out more


Born in Nairobi, a young Kiren Sharma and his two sisters grew up in Kenya and Malawi, where their father worked for the railways. Kenya’s political troubles in the early 70s saw the siblings and their parents move to London, living first with family members in Middlesex, before moving to Tilehurst, near Reading. Keen to study, Sharma took a mechanical engineering course at college in Slough and, after graduation, rather than follow a career in engineering, found himself offered a role in recruitment. The word serendipity springs to mind as it was that very agency which formed the cornerstone of today’s recruitment empire. Sharma, who lives in Pangbourne, is married to wife Cathy and has three grown-up children.


All of a sudden, I realised it was a good business to be in because it was all about people and networking and that is what I like.


I spent 18 months with Forest before leaving and from there started Brunel Industrial Contractors.


In 1983 I launched


Gravity Personnel, which solely supplied engineering staff, taking its name from Newton’s laws, and has been going strong ever since.


Was it a big decision to start your own business?


It was always in the back of my mind that I would like to work for myself but it never occurred to me that it would be within just four or five years of starting in recruitment.


What attracted you to study engineering?


There was no real rhyme or reason. I was interested in cars and it just appealed to me.


How did your first job come about?


I graduated in 1977 and my father saw a job advert from Forest Personnel for engineers. When I went to see them about the role, the MD offered me a position as a trainee recruitment consultant and I’ve been in recruitment ever since.


I played a lot of sport to a high level in regional leagues and joined various local clubs; through that I made plenty of really good contacts and really helped my career.


www.businessmag.co.uk


With my background I could see there was a need to supply staff purely for the engineering sector. I used to start work at 4am, driving contractors to where they needed to be, then I’d come back to the office and do sales calls. My wife Cathy worked flexi-time for an insurance company and when she finished work she’d come and help too, we did everything ourselves, even the office cleaning.


In the mid-1980s, Cathy joined the business and we’ve worked together ever since.


I


couldn’t have done it without her massive support.


What were some of the challenges?


When the recession of the early 90s came along, manufacturing, engineering and construction all took a massive downturn. We diversified into other areas such as logistics and pharmaceutical and supplied


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – FEBRUARY 2016


all sorts of disciplines, from storemen to packers and forklift truck drivers, that kept us going.


What does the business look like today?


We went from one office in West Street, Reading, where we were on two floors, then bought our own freehold offices in Greyfriars Road. We’ve expanded a lot. Now we supply up to 1,000 staff a day in and around the Reading area. I founded Gravity Rail, specialising in the rail sector, about a decade ago and six years ago I bought Forest Personnel, the very company that had first employed me.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56