From RAF intelligence to financial services, and now fish and chips, Rich has taken a somewhat unconventional route into entrepreneurship.
After serving five years in the RAF, Rich moved into financial services, becoming an Independent Financial Adviser before building and selling his own financial planning business.
In March 2025, Rich took a very different leap and opened Grandpa’s Fish Bar in his home village of Lanchester, County Durham. Named in honour of his grandfather Eric, the traditional fish and chip shop was intended to be a local business with a strong personality, but it quickly became considerably more ambitious.
Within its first year, Grandpa’s had grown into a significant local brand, generating hundreds of thousands of pounds in turnover and building a social media following of more than 22,000 people across Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. The business has also been recognised nationally, including being named as one of the UK's top 40 fish and chip shops.
Rich has since begun developing the business beyond its original shop, launching a mobile catering operation for private and corporate events and exploring further food concepts, additional sites and opportunities to build a portfolio of complementary businesses.
For Rich, entrepreneurship is less about following a predetermined plan and more about spotting opportunities, taking calculated risks and figuring things out along the way. He particularly enjoys the commercial side of business such as sales, marketing, branding, negotiation and finding ways to turn an idea into a viable business.
Away from work, Rich is married to Emma and is dad to three-year-old Asher. He is a keen tennis player, cook, guitarist and campervan enthusiast, and can usually be found either thinking about his next business idea or trying to convince someone else that it is a good one.
Having built and sold a business, started another from scratch and experienced both the excitement and the challenges of rapid growth, Rich is keen to connect with other entrepreneurs through the Entrepreneurs Forum, share experiences and learn from people tackling the same problems at different stages of their journeys.
