Paul Hargreaves made his parents proud when he clinched a zoology degree at Oxford University, but that soon faded away when he told them he had landed his first job — as the driver of a 7.5-tonne lorry for a local courier firm.
“Every Saturday morning, I got a phone call from my mum to say, ‘Have you got a proper job yet?’ They were so embarrassed by me. They used to tell their friends at dinner parties that I had a job in distribution,” laughed Hargreaves, now 58.
Ironically, he has gone on to build a successful business in distribution: Cotswold Fayre, a wholesaler of speciality British foods to independent food retailers, which generated sales of £23.4 million last year. Popular products from the
