A SINGLE mum has told how she transformed her life from teen pregnancy to featuring on Dragons’ Den and now being worth £15m.
Kirsty Henshaw, 39, grew up in a working-class household in Preston, Lancashire, and became a single mum at just 19.
But over the past two decades, the single mum-of-two has turned a business idea into a whopping £15m empire.
Her idea came while she was raising her son Jacob, who was diagnosed with a severe nut and dairy allergy.
To make her son’s life simpler and safer, Kirsty created a dairy-free ice cream recipe from her tiny kitchen.
This would serve as the starting point of her multi-million pound idea.
Then the following year, 2010, she took it onto Dragons’ Den and secured a £65k investment from Peter Jones and Duncan Bannatyne.
The brand dubbed Kirsty’s expanded into a range of free-from ready meals.
After three years in the business, she bought the two dragons out of their investment.
15 years on from its first launch, Kirsty’s is the UK’s number one free-from ready meal brand, worth £15 million.
Now living in Hale, Cheshire, the single mum-of-two said: “I had always been entrepreneurial but we didn’t have much money growing up.
“After having Jacob I realised the free-from sections of supermarkets were dull – back then there was nothing.
“I wanted to create something to feel I wasn’t alone in this allergy world – I made something Jacob could eat and could also benefit others.
“When I went on Dragons’ Den I was only making ice cream but I had ideas for a much bigger collection of products.
“My friends advised me not to go on the show but I wanted to prove people wrong – and it ended up being the making of the business. Investment enabled me to expand – and now Kirsty’s is stocked in almost every supermarket.
“It’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears but I’ve never given up hope – now I just want to keep growing.”
Kirsty found out how severe her now 18-year-old son’s allergies were when he was just six-months-old.
Jacob went into anaphylaxis as a result of Kirsty kissing him on the mouth an hour after snacking on unknowingly peanuts.
However, the mum said at the time, the selection of allergy-friendly options in supermarkets was “dull” and it felt isolating.
She worked late in a bar to pay rent on a tiny two-bed house for them, while raising her son alone as a teen mum.
Signs your child may have an allergy
AN ALLERGY is where your body reacts to something that's normally harmless like pollen, dust or animal fur. The symptoms can be mild, but for some people they can be very serious, according to the NHS.
Causes of allergies
Things that cause allergic reactions are called allergens.
Common allergens include:
- tree and grass pollen (hay fever)
- house dust mites
- foods, such as peanuts, milk and eggs (food allergy)
- animals, particularly pets like cats and dogs
- insect stings, such as bee and wasp stings
- certain medicines
Symptoms of an allergic reaction can include:
- a runny nose or sneezing
- pain or tenderness around your cheeks, eyes or forehead
- coughing, wheezing or breathlessness
- itchy skin or a raised rash (hives)
- diarrhoea
- feeling or being sick
- swollen eyes, lips, mouth or throat
Immediate action required
Call 999 if:
- your lips, mouth, throat or tongue suddenly become swollen
- you’re breathing very fast or struggling to breathe (you may become very wheezy or feel like you’re choking or gasping for air)
- your throat feels tight or you’re struggling to swallow
- your skin, tongue or lips turn blue, grey or pale (if you have black or brown skin, this may be easier to see on the palms of your hands or soles of your feet)
- you suddenly become very confused, drowsy or dizzy
- someone faints and cannot be woken up
- a child is limp, floppy or not responding like they normally do (their head may fall to the side, backwards or forwards, or they may find it difficult to lift their head or focus on your face)
- You or the person who’s unwell may also have a rash that’s swollen, raised or itchy.
These can be signs of a serious allergic reaction and may need immediate treatment in hospital.
In her limited free time she began experimenting with making free-from foods in her tiny kitchen of her two-bed home.
When Jacob was three, after getting herself a budget ice cream maker from Argos for £30, Kirsty developed a tasty dairy-free recipe.
She thought others would benefit too and started a business with a small manufacturer to sell it in local health food shops – funding it by picking up extra bar shifts at work.
Kirsty said: “I was naïve, and I was so nervous. But because I did everything in the business myself, from finance to pitching and marketing, I knew the answers to all of their questions.
“And that investment from Peter Jones and Duncan Bannatyne, in exchange for 15% each, was the making of my business.”
Over the following years the brand moved away from ice cream and into frozen and chilled ready meals, pizzas and eventually desserts.
Kirsty’s products are already seen on the shelves of supermarkets including Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Tesco, Nisa and Co-op.
She said: “Now, we are known to be a free-from brand but we’re not just sold to people with allergies.”
The brand now has a factory in Yorkshire, where 90% of its products are made, and is working towards becoming carbon-neutral.
The business has some 60 employees now, including her son Jacob, the inspiration behind the whole company.
Kirsty, also mum to Sophie, six, said: “Sales are £15million a year, and we’re working towards bringing that up to £25million in the next two years. For me, the learning over the last few years has been huge – I think I could write a business degree from everything I’ve learnt.
“I never really stop and think about how far we’ve come, but I’m very pleased. It hasn’t been easy. But I’ve never given up hope and I want to show my children what you can achieve if you work hard.
“I just want to normalise free-from food – that actually tastes good and is healthy. It’s something that can be part of your diet, allergies or not.”
