A Zimbabwean woman whose family was forced to flee the Mugabe terror after thugs beat their neighbours has found a new life in Birmingham – designing the world’s first anti-odour dog bed.
Sian Lenegan found herself in the 海角视频 after her father Owen had to suddenly close his engineering factory in Bulawayo, putting 200 people out of work, after Mugabe’s henchmen targeted white industrialists.
They fled with only a few personal possessions and ended up in South Wales where her father got a job as a contractor, working nights at Tesco to help make ends meet.
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Rather than return to her strife-torn homeland, Ms Lenegan also moved to Britain after leaving university in South Africa – and is now helping pioneer a 海角视频 first in pet and household hygiene through anti-bacterial treatment Micro-Fresh.
In conjunction with Leicester entrepreneur Byron Dixon, Sian has launched a new company, Snouts and Pouts, making anti-odour dog beds for hygiene-conscious pet lovers. The pair came up with the unique venture after meeting on a Goldman Sachs small business programme at Aston University.
She said: “I love Zimbabwe but left in 2003. We had British passports but we couldn’t stay in the country that we were born in. It was not safe to stay.
“My parents had to leave very quickly. My father had a 40,000 sq ft factory where he manufactured air conditioners and ventilation units. He had that business for 22 years.
“The factory three doors down was taken by Mugabe’s people and the white owners were held in a room and beaten for four days. Dad closing down the factory in Bulawayo put 200 people out of work. I was at university at the time.
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“We had Zimbabwean passports and British passports. The Government said you cannot have both. We kept our British passports, and they said, ‘You have chosen.’
“I would not have left. It was home. It was everything I knew, but I have not been back there for 13 years.
Ms Lenegan eventually got a job as a paralegal in Cardiff, proof-reading legal documents, but got her big break when she landed a nine-month placement with a company in Exeter, working on direct marketing campaigns.
“I went to work for one of my clients, Bray Leino, in Devon, the largest advertising and digital agency in the 海角视频. That is when I moved into digital marketing.
“I worked there for three years near Barnstaple. My husband is in the Royal Marines and we were stationed in Shropshire at Market Drayton. I always knew that I was going to have my own business and I started it from my own home, offering digital and web-design services.
“It was very hard work back in 2009. After nine months, I got my first studio in Digbeth in Birmingham. I knew I needed to be in the city. I needed an office location and we moved into St Paul’s Square.
“In 2012, we started on the Goldman Sachs programme and we had our best period of growth. The programme was really tough, like a Dragons’ Den interrogation.
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“The biggest thing from Goldman Sachs was that previously I had been doing it on my own, I was too detached. I realised that having support and building networks around me was key.
“Now, we are a team of six. We have been in St Paul’s Square since 2012 and we have a turnover of £250,000.
“We have in excess of 100 clients, we work with blue chip brands such as e-Bay, Virgin Atlantic and Coca Cola.”
Fresh scent of success
The world’s first odour-free dog bed was born after Sian Lenegan and Byron Dixon met at Aston University in 2012 on the Goldman Sachs programme.
Mr Dixon had launched his own business from home after leaving a jet-set sales job in Denmark with Ecco Shoes, where he regularly travelled all over the world.
“I loved it and travelling sounds great but it was really tiring. You would go to Scandinavia and the next day you would get a message to say you have to go to Brazil.
“I decided to set up my own business, Corium Solutions, a supplier of finishes for leather, footwear, upholstery and handbags, working from my home in Leicester. I knew I was taking a risk, I was working from my bedroom.
“I wanted freedom and I was prepared to put in the shifts. You get rejected. I had no orders for two years. I just kept going and I eventually had a trickle of orders.”
In 2006 Byron’s business career was transformed when he came up with Micro-Fresh, an anti-bacterial treatment.
“It stops micro organisms growing. It stops all those nasties, from MRSA to E-coli, Listeria and Salmonella. We did the trials, and it worked, it stopped things from smelling.”
Helping hand...
The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses is an innovative, fully-funded programme aimed at unlocking the economic and job creation potential of small businesses and social enterprises from across the Midlands.
It is delivered by Aston Business School in partnership with the Goldman Sachs Foundation and it is targeted at business owners who have clear ambitions to expand their small businesses or social enterprises.
To date a total of 200 business leaders have already completed the programme, with an eighth cohort of 28 businesses currently involved, bringing the total
of the Midlands Network to 228 business leaders.