Table Of ContentANYONE
CAN DO IT
The Autobiography
Duncan Bannatyne
Contents
ONE Meet the Bannatynes 3
TWO An entrepreneur in the making 11
THREE In the Navy 18
FOUR Dishonourably discharged 28
FIVE Whatever it takes 35
SIX Becoming the oldest 39
SEVEN Jersey 44
EIGHT Duncan's Super Ices 51
NINE Ice-cream wars 63
TEN Building the foundations of a fortune 69
ELEVEN Going it alone 75
TWELVE The first million 86
THIRTEEN Taking care of business 99
FOURTEEN The extortion attempt 106
FIFTEEN Shark-infested waters 114
SIXTEEN The night of the flotation 124
SEVENTEEN Making my money count for something 131
EIGHTEEN Looking to the future 139
NINETEEN Moving on 148
TWENTY Just Learning 156
TWENTY-ONE Getting involved with Unicef 168
TWENTY-TWO Selling Quality Care Homes 176
TWENTY-THREE How to lose a million 181
TWENTY-FOUR Business angel 186
To my children: Abigail, Hollie, Jennifer, Eve, Emily and Tom.
TWENTY-FIVE Radio times 190
Remember I love you more ...
TWENTY-SIX Hotel Bannatyne 196
TWENTY-SEVEN Getting the health clubs up and running 202
TWENTY-EIGHT Borrow fast, build faster 208
TWENTY-NINE Running a tight ship 216
THIRTY Casa Bannatyne 226
THIRTY-ONE From the sewers to the Palace 235
THIRTY-TWO An actor's life for me? 243
THIRTY-THREE Enter the dragon 247
THIRTY-FOUR Into the den 256
THIRTY-FIVE When the cameras stop rolling 266
THIRTY-SIX My life as a dragon 274
THIRTY-SEVEN The future 284
Index 289
Acknowledgements Introduction
Anyone can do it
First and foremost, a big thank you to all my family and friends who
have assisted me throughout the last fifty or so years of my life, as
well as to all employees and professionals who have helped me in
my business career. 'Making £100 million is so easy anyone can do it. Few people
1 would also like to thank Jo Monroe for her help with the believe me when I say that, but with this book I hope to show that
writing of this book, my agent David Smith at Annette Green it's true. Even people with no family connections, no money and no
Authors' Agency, as well as my publisher Ian Marshall, his assistant education can do it: 1 know because I did. I had an incredibly poor
Lorraine Baxter and all at Orion. Thank you to my assistant, Kim childhood, I left school without a single qualification and spent my
Crowther, whose help with this book has been invaluable. Thank twenties doing a string of dead-end jobs. It wasn't until I hit thirty
you all. that I took my career seriously and by thirty-five I was seriously
rich.
Contrary to the advice in any business book I've ever read, I made
my money without sector expertise, contacts or capital. 1 never had
a USP, never had "first mover advantage" or invented anything, and
I didn't even do anything unique or that someone else couldn't have
done. What I did have was a Yellow Pages and some determination -
and that's all it takes.'
Duncan Bannatyne
ONE
Meet the
Bannatynes
1949-60
When I am determined to do
something, I usually do it.
People often ask me if I think entrepreneurs are born or made
because they want to know if there's something in my childhood
that singled me out for success. I don't know, to be honest, but I do
know that if you had a childhood like mine, you'll never get bored
of using private jets, owning luxury villas or staying in the best
hotels.
I was born on Wednesday, 2 February 1949 at Springfield House
in Dalmuir to the west of Glasgow, the second child of Bill and Jean
Bannatyne. They named me Duncan Walker after my father's uncle.
Springfield House was a large six-bedroom house, the type
normally occupied by wealthy families, but we were far from
wealthy. Springfield was a 'requisition house', one of several
properties taken over by the council to provide families with
accommodation while a massive rebuilding programme replaced
houses that had been lost during the Second World War. We shared
it with six other families and each family had just one room. The
toilet was communal, but as there was no bathroom, bath time at
Springfield meant boiling the kettle on the stove and filling the tin
3
4 ANYONE CAN DO IT MEET THE BANNANTYNES 5
bath in front of the coal fire. 1 remember that although my mum was helpless as many of his companions and fellow soldiers drowned.
gentler at towelling us dry, I always wanted my dad to do it: he may He always said that if he hadn't been a strong swimmer he wouldn't
have been rougher, but he was also quicker, and it was bloody cold have survived. After several hours in the water, he was rescued from
in that flat! the sea, not by the Americans, but by the Japanese again. What a
Our family grew fast: there was just eighteen months between choice: drown or face life in a prison camp. 1 can't imagine what an
myself and my older sister, Helen, and only fifty weeks between me experience like that does to you.
and my younger brother George. Eventually there would be seven of After a spell of hard labour on the notorious Burma railway he
us: after George came Anne, then William, and Campbell. My and Robert were taken to Nagasaki, where they worked in a mine
youngest brother Sandy was born on my dad's fifty-first birthday near where the Americans dropped the atomic bomb. Somehow he
which was after 1 had left home and joined the Royal Navy. When survived brutal treatment that amounted to slave labour, and was
George was born, the council rehoused us for a short time in a forced to work in appalling conditions that killed many of his
prefab, then into a small semi-detached house on Canberra Avenue, captured comrades. At the end of the war the liberators described
and when we outgrew that, we moved into another council my dad - who was 6ft tall but weighed under 7 stone - and his
property, a 'four-in-a-block' (a bit like a semi, but with two flats on companions as 'the living dead', men who were so starved they
each side) on Dickens Avenue, where I shared a bed with my should have died. When my father came home from the war, his
brothers in a room heated by a coal fire. By the time my father came mother was dead and his father was too sick to take care of him, and
home from the pub, the embers would be dying down and he'd although he was entitled to double rations to help build him up
often come into our room and put his big winter coat over the three again, it took the love and care of his wonderful Auntie Maisy and
of us. her husband Duncan, after whom I was named, to nurse him back
to health. Auntie Maisy had an unusual way of lifting his spirits: she
My mum was born Jean McGovan Holmes in Paisley on 26
introduced him to my mother Jean. My father was ten years older
October 1925, the seventh of seven children. During the war, she
than my mother, which was pretty scandalous in those days, and
worked at a munitions factory in Glasgow packing 25lb shells with
Jean's parents disapproved of their relationship. As far as I know, my
cordite. She married my father in May 1946 and dedicated her life
mother's parents never spoke to my father and I've always thought
to bringing up us kids in an era with no washing machines, Hoovers
they must have really loved each other to have married against her
or any of today's labour-saving devices. 1 have memories of my mum
family's wishes.
wringing our clothes dry on the mangle, and when I look back I
can't believe how hard my parents worked just raising a family, My father wasn't the kind of man who talked about his
especially my mum. experiences in the POW camp, and I wasn't the kind of kid who
asked too many questions, but over the years and usually after a few
During the war my father served with the Argyll and Sutherland
pints of beer, 1 pieced together little snippets of information about
Highlanders regiment. He and his good friend Robert King were
his traumatic experience during the war. I didn't understand the full
part of the thin red line during the Second World War and, after the
horror, however, until I reached my twenties when my father broke
fall of Singapore, both were captured by the Japanese. The Japanese
down after a family funeral and told me that the crematorium had
transporter they were on was bombed by the Americans and both
brought back terrible memories of his years in the POW camp. He
crew and prisoners had to abandon ship. My father watched
6 ANYONE CAN DO IT MEET THE BANNANTYNES 7
said it had reminded him of the times when he'd had to pile up the another occasion, the local copper rounded up a few of us for
bodies of his dead comrades and set light to them. 'I will never throwing stones at swans. 1 don't remember if we actually threw any
forget the putrid smell of burning flesh,' he wept. He also told me a stones, what I do remember is that I'd been told to look after my
story of a time when he and his comrades, who were close to little sister Anne, and when the police took us away they hadn't
starvation, were driven to catch and eat a large rat, and how realised Anne was in her pram and had been left behind all on her
delicious that rat had tasted. In many ways my dad was just an own!
ordinary man, but in other ways he was utterly remarkable. 1 think I always wanted life to be more exciting than it was. I was
The main thing I think I inherited from him was his unswerving terrible at being bored and so took myself off to the library to read
determination. After all he had been through, he was adamant that cowboy books and adventure stories. One day 1 picked up a book
he would get fit, get a job, get married, have children, bring up a on magic and taught myself to do some tricks. It entertained my
family and contribute to the rebuilding of the country he had fought friends and I was asked to put on a show for the Boys' Brigade. I
for. He succeeded, and it can't have been easy. When I'm determined liked the attention, and looking back I can see there was a bit of a
to do something, like him, I usually do it, too. show-off inside who wouldn't come to the fore again until I started
We were a big, boisterous family and there were endless a TV career in my fifties.
squabbles between us, but never any major fallings out. I am old Although my mum's dad still refused to talk to my father, the rest
enough to remember life before television, and before we got our of mum's family were close. Her sister Margaret and my cousins
first TV in the sixties, long after everyone else in the street had got David and Sheila lived locally, and we often spent time at Auntie
one, most of my memories are of playing outside, kicking cans Margaret's. She was a complete Trojan, a hardworking woman who
around or going to the local baths for a swim, where I began my life- wouldn't take any lip from any of us, and if we tried anything, she'd
long affinity with water. After my father's experience in the war, he threaten us with her carpet beater, though she never actually used
made sure that all his children could swim, and we also spent a lot it. My cousins on my dad's side of the family also figured pretty
of time with him in the garden and allotment, growing vegetables heavily in my childhood, so we were devastated when two of them
which my mum would use in a stew. Dad also kept rabbits and died within a couple of years of each other. One succumbed to
chickens, which again ended up in my mum's kitchen where all us leukaemia, and the family was only just coming to terms with that
kids were made to do our fair share of the chores. when her younger brother Alex ran out of the school gates and was
hit by a bus. They managed to jack the bus off him, but just when
On Saturdays we would often go to the pictures and watch a
it looked like he would make it, the jack collapsed and the bus
cowboy movie at the Regal cinema. Usually two of us would pay to
crushed him, killing him instantly. A few years later their older
go in, and then we'd go into the toilets and pull the others in
brother died of a heart attack - it's no wonder both parents became
through the window. We'd then spend their ticket money on sweets.
alcoholics and didn't live long into their forties. The crematorium in
Once we had the TV, I would watch shows like Watch With Mother
Clydebank wasn't far from our street, and it loomed large over our
with my younger siblings, and my sisters and I seldom missed an
young lives, a grim reminder that life could always get worse.
episode of I Love Lucy. But there wasn't much to do, and once - in
In one sense, most people in Clydebank were the same: a lot of
a desperate bid for excitement - I got into trouble with a couple of
us lived in a council house and supported either Rangers or Celtic,
pals when we nicked some turnips from the local allotment! On
8 ANYONE CAN DO IT MEET THE BANNANTYNES 9
most people's mothers stayed at home and most people's dads wanted to meet her properly and have a cup of tea with her! I
worked at the Singer sewing machine factory. It was a huge factory remember being dissatisfied a lot of the time and rarely happy. My
- the largest in the world when it was built in 1884 - and at its peak brothers and sisters always got excited when we took the bus to
in 1960, it employed more than 6,000 people. My dad worked in Saltcoats on the west coast for our summer holiday, but I couldn't
the foundry, pouring liquid metal into the moulds that made the see what all the fuss was about and found it boring. It was almost as
sewing machines. Like everyone else, when the bell rang at the end if I was enduring my childhood while I waited for something bigger
of the working day, he headed straight for the pub and often and better to come along.
wouldn't come home until closing time. School wasn't any different from home life in that I was often
In another sense, though, I knew we were different. Other kids unhappy I think it must have been because I got into trouble a lot
had bikes and got ice creams when the ice cream van came round, and found it hard to pay attention to things I didn't see the point of.
and some of their parents had cars and televisions and other things I went to Dalmuir Primary School and the one subject where I
to be envious of. There was a kid next door who was an only child showed some natural ability was maths, but even my maths teacher
and he had so many toys that it just emphasised how few we had. didn't have much time for me because I was unable to show my
Often when I asked for something like an ice cream, I was told I workings out. I could calculate quite complicated sums in my head,
couldn't have it. And when I asked why, I always got the same but I couldn't explain how 1 worked the answers out. It's obviously
answer: because we were poor. I heard that phrase so often that I an ability that's served me well in later life as I can instantly tell in
grew to hate it. I know there were times when my parents could buy negotiations if someone's trying to swindle me, but at school it just
ice creams, and there were occasions when my grandma gave me made me seem like a cocky troublemaker.
enough money for a treat, but my overriding memory is that more Nevertheless, I could see that the kids who went to high school -
often than not we went without. I didn't understand why we were what in England would be called a grammar school - had better toys
poor, because as far as I could see we were as good as anyone else. than me, and so I made it my mission to do as well as I could at
It felt like we were being punished when we'd done nothing wrong, school so I would pass my 11 Plus and get into what we called the
so 1 promised myself that when I grew up 1 would not be poor. 'posh school'. My sister Helen had already failed her 11 Plus, so no
That's a completely different thing to saying 1 was going to be one held out much hope for me, but 1 knuckled down anyway,
wealthy - there was no way I'd have dared to dream I would become staying in and reading while my brothers were out playing, and
rich - I just wanted to have enough money to buy my whole family studying really hard.
an ice cream. And I was determined that when I grew up I would When I passed - 1 was the only one in the family who did - my
have a car and that my children would have bikes and as many ice parents were incredibly proud of me. I remember my dad saying,
creams as they wanted. 'My son's going to be a doctor, my son's going to make something of
My memory is that my brothers and sisters were much happier himself,' and of course it felt terrific, it's a moment I remember with
with our lot than I was. At some point, I remember having a day out pride.
to see the Queen, who was visiting Glasgow. Everyone was getting However, when I started school, it was immediately obvious that
very excited and saying what a special day it was, but the crowd was I was going to find it tough. There were 600 children at that school,
Fifty deep and I couldn't see a thing. I didn't see the point of it: I and on the day I started 598 of them had a school uniform. I was
10 ANYONE CAN DO IT
one of the other two. Uniforms were expensive and my mum had
had trouble getting the right clothes. 1 think she'd borrowed a blazer
TWO
and made some trousers herself, but it wasn't a proper uniform like
the other kids had. She told me to tell the teachers that I would have
An entrepreneur
my proper uniform for the second week of term, but in that first
week the damage was done: everybody knew 1 was poor and they
in the making
either teased me about it or shied away from me. Not only was I
different from the kids at school, at home 1 was also seen as different
1960-64
because 1 went to a posh school. Wherever I went, 1 felt like a misfit.
You have to make your own chances.
I noticed that most of the kids at the high school had bikes and, as
the only kid without one, I felt incredibly left out. I had been asking
my dad almost all my life for a bike, but now 1 began asking him
every day. Of course, his answer was still the same - we were still
poor - so I decided that if he couldn't buy me a bike then I'd have
to buy one myself. I knew a couple of kids at school had paper
rounds, so I thought I'd get one and save up.
The local paper shop was in Duntocher Road, not far from our
place on Dickens Avenue, It was always known as jenny's News
agents, after its owner, I went in and asked for a paper round, but
Jenny looked down her nose at me and said, There's none available.'
I didn't believe her and instinctively knew that she thought I was a
scruffy urchin who couldn't be trusted. I also knew there were
people in Clydebank who wanted a paper delivered because my
mum was one of them.
So I told Jenny, 'My mother wants a paper delivered but no one
delivers in our street.'
'Well you can't create a paper round for just one house,' she
replied.
11
