An extraordinary journey
My father-in-law trained as a chartered accountant, then quickly
escaped the life of an auditor to move into business, working for
Unigate, where he had an interesting role involved in its
diversification into fast food outlets and Laundromats. When that
strategy was rescinded he left the business to open a Kentucky
Fried Chicken store for himself - a daring thing to do at a time
when the sceptics still doubted an Englishman would ever eat in the
street or with his fingers. The store turned out to be a little
gold mine, surrounded as it was with bed-sits in Gloucester Road in
west London, supporting a constant turnover of overseas visitors
seeking convenient, affordable meals. Gradually he opened more
stores to form a substantial chain by the time he sold out to his
long-serving management team in 1997. Even more entrepreneurial
steps included acquiring a tripe factory in Kings Cross that was
converted into a chicken cutting operation and a wholesale business
for distributing frozen French fries to the KFC stores and other
franchisees. But of greatest significance was his purchase of
London's first two Mexican fast food restaurants, that had
failed.
I appeared on the scene as his eldest daughter's boyfriend, just
over from Zimbabwe. He asked me if I could help out at the factory
one day, then could I stay to the end of the week, the month - and
so on - and ultimately I spent six years there. He had been forced
to import tortillas and other items for the Mexican restaurants and
we established ourselves as the main supplier to other Mexican
restaurants in the UK, and to the American diners that were to
follow.
Eventually my frustration with wholesaling, commuting to London and
missing my first son's early years - plus a growing vision for
selling Mexican food into retail - led my father-in-law to back me
in the setting up of Discovery Foods. It was an astute move,
deploying the cash flow from the fast food business into building a
long term asset with potentially a much greater capital return than
a franchised operation. He has now sold his stake in Discovery and
I have diluted mine - as we bring in a partner with greater
resources to help make the brand truly famous. As we have talked
about this extraordinary journey, we are prompted to give thanks
for everything that has passed. and to look forward to what is set
out ahead for us. Sometimes it seems that only when we look back
can we see that there was, in fact, a road along which we
travelled.
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