Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’m in the honey
Steve banks £100m for bee business he built in council house
AN entrepreneur who started a bee products business from the kitchen table of his council house has sold it for more than £100million.
Steve Ryan, 63, can afford an island in the Bahamas and a private jet after American firm INW bought Bee Health.
But asked how it felt to be a multimillionaire, he said: “No bloody different.
“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. But I will be on an island in Asia in December until February.”
The firm, which makes “bee derivative products” and health supplements is ranked in the Top 200 UK companies with the fastestgrowing international sales.
Mr Ryan said the 360 staff at the Bee Health factory in Bridlington, East Yorks, had worked tirelessly to cope with rising demand during the coronavirus crisis.
He said: “The pandemic doubled us, it sent us into chaos. We were manufacturing 160 to 170 million tablets and capsules a week.
“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.” He started Bee Health with his late wife Bea Ryan in 1992 after being introduced to bees during night shifts picking sprouts.
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. 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.
“When we first started it was crazy, we’d do the honey farm in the day, then at night I’d go beekeeping to get more honey for the shelves for the next day.
“Then the supplement side took off and sales went through the roof.”
He said INW, based in Dallas, paid “more than double” what he expected for Bee Health, which will keep the Bridlington staff.
The dad-of-four, who has five grandchildren, now plans to do voluntary work and mentor young business people.
Asked the key to his success, he said: “Sheer hard work and having a pair of balls bigger than my brain. An entrepreneur is always a gambler.”