An entrepreneur has sold his bee business started from the kitchen table of his council house to an American company for £100m.
Steve Ryan, who is from Liverpool, has sold his Bridlington firm Bee Health to Dallas-based INW, and says he can now afford an island in the Bahamas and a Falcon private jet.
Mr Ryan, has spoken of how his obsession with “fascinating honeybees” has now made him a multi-millionaire, as .
Asked how it feels to be a multi-millionaire he laughs: “No bloody different.
“As part of the process we ended up as more than double what we thought we'd get for it.
“But I thought looking at the whole picture they were getting a pretty good deal.
Don't miss a thing - sign up for your free North West newsletter - and follow us on LinkedIn
Email newsletters
BusinessLive is your home for business news from around the North West- and you can stay in touch with all the latest news from Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria through our email alerts.
You can sign up to receive daily morning news bulletins from every region we cover and to weekly email bulletins covering key economic sectors from manufacturing to technology and enterprise. And we'll send out breaking news alerts for any stories we think you can't miss.
Visit our email preference centre to sign up to all the latest news from BusinessLive.
For all the latest stories, views, polls and more - and the news as it breaks - .
“My bank manager said what is the first thing I'm going to buy. But I don't need anything. I've got everything. I've got six race horses.
Most Read
“But I will be on an island in Asia in December until February.”
Asked the key to his incredible success, he said: “Sheer hard work and having a pair of balls bigger than my brain most of the time. An entrepreneur is always a gambler.”
Steve started his bee product company in 1992 with his late wife Bea Ryan after being introduced to bees during his night shift working picking sprouts.
“I started work there to lose some weight because I was 18 stone then,” he said.
“I loved the idea of 100,000 workers working for free. Honey bees are intriguing and phenomenal insects.
“I got a council house when I was 25 and that's how we started the job. We got two twin tubs from an auction, one for spinning honey and one for spinning resin.
“We opened a honey farm tourist attraction in Scarborough and bought a small factory to start producing products to sell in the shop.
Don’t miss
“When we first started it was crazy, we'd do the honey farm in the day, then at night I'd go out beekeeping to get more honey for the shelves for the next day. My wife would make scones to sell.
“Then the supplement side really took off and sales went through the roof.
“From being an uneducated person it's just sheer hard graft and taking a gamble.”
Steve says he got his work ethic from his mum and dad in Liverpool.
His dad drove Pylon rigs and his mum was kept busy having seven boys by the time she was 23.
“They'd tell us you have to work and pay your way,” he said.
The firm he sold supplies products to Holland & Barrett and are major stockists of vitamins.
Bee Health, has been ranked in the top 200 of Britain’s companies with the fastest-growing international sales.
Mr Ryan said he was able to do the deal because the Government allowed company executives to travel overseas to do business if it was in excess of £100 million.
“The pandemic doubled us, it sent us into chaos. We were manufacturing 160 to 170 million tablets and capsules a week,” he said.
“The business was just so successful. We were making 50 million Vitamin D every two weeks.
“I think people are far more conscious of taking vitamins.
"It was said 72 per cent who passed away from were deficient in Vitamin D.”
He said the factory in Bridlington is remaining with the same 360 staff, including his 26 year old son, Lewis Ryan, who is chief executive.
“I'm very very proud of him, he's a very intelligent kid,” he said.
His parting gift was to several workers he'd given interest free loans of £10,000 for a house deposit. He wiped out their debt.
The dad-of-four, who has five grandchildren, said he is now going to do voluntary work and plans to mentor young business people.
His wife's shares are in a family trust for everyone to buy homes for his grandchildren and pay for their education.