Sanjay Vadera
Sanjay Vadera was born in Uganda but lives in Bolton, Lancashire. He is a self made millionaire and is said to be worth around £75 million. He made his fortune through the distribution of perfume.
Early years
Sanjay came to England in 1972 when he was 5 years old as a refugee from Uganda, to escape the regime of Dictator Idi Amin. Sanjay and his family had a good lifestyle in Uganda but had to leave their valuables behind and arrived in Britain with nothing. He grew up in Bolton with his family and went to the Manchester Polytechnic to study Computer Science and Physics. During his second year at university he was working part time in a menswear shop when he met a fragrance wholesaler from London who invited Sanjay to rep for him. He did a deal with the menswear shop owners and opened concessions within two of their stores just before Christmas. He wasn’t really enjoying his degree course and seized the opportunity to sell perfume on a full time basis. For the first six months he worked for the wholesaler in London and then in 1990 he decided to setup on his own in Manchester under the name Per-Scent.
Career
A friend helped Sanjay to get started by providing him with an office and a phone line. He was Sanjay’s mentor in the early days but has since sadly passed away. To expand his business Sanjay needed to borrow £20,000 but the banks were cautious, so Sanjay turned to his parents who offered to use their home as security. Initially Sanjay sourced top brands such as Versace and Chanel from approved retailers who had excess stocks and he sold them to secondary market retailers who were unable to deal directly with the brand houses. In his first year, Sanjay turned over slightly more than £1 million. His big break came in 1992 when he heard that Superdrug wanted to sell perfume but were unable to buy directly from the brands. After a successful three month trial period Per-Scent was given preferred supplier status by Superdrug and Per-Scent’s turnover doubled to £6 million.
Today
Sanjay is now CEO of Per-Scent which has grown into a £47 million business with over 75 employees. It is very much a family business with his brother Vipul working as the Managing Director and his wife and sister working in the accounts department. He also launched his own retail outlets, Perfume Point, which has now expanded into an internet venture perfumepoint.co.uk. At the end of 2006 Sanjay made a buyout deal for The Fragrance Shop along with the original founder Bill Currie. The business, which consists of over 100 stores, was privately bought from Peacocks and now trades with Sanjay and Bill as joint Chief Executives.
Sanjay lives at home in Bolton with his wife Rita and their two young sons. He is a devout Hindu and a Manchester United season ticket holder.
References
- "How I Made It: Sanjay Vadera, founder of Per-Scent","The Times Online", 1st February 2004. Accessed 4th October 2007
- Feddy, Kevin "Time Is Of The Essence", "The Manchester Evening News", 18th February 2004. Accessed 4th October 2007
- Moore, Sheryl "Sanjay's £42M Fragrant Deal", "The Manchester Evening News", 4th July 2005. Accessed 4th October 2007.