FEATURE
H
aving to work – unpaid – in his parents’ corner shop after school, there were many times Imran Anwar resented his upbringing on Teesside.
But now, looking back on a strict childhood, he knows it’ s what moulded him into an awardwinning entrepreneur.
“ I hated it at the time, but I’ ve come to appreciate what it taught me,” says the newly crowned Tees Business Leader of the Year.
“ The drive, discipline, work ethic, appreciating the value of money, building relationships with customers – it all came from that little shop.”
Today, Imran is CEO of Middlesbrough-based digital innovation agency Alt Labs, with a £ 2m turnover, 24 employees, and a new international office in Saudi Arabia’ s capital, Riyadh.
There are plans to add another ten Teesside employees, plus five in Riyadh, with“ some important new contracts” imminent.
But he remains a passionate advocate for Teesside and, as well as being a governor at Middlesbrough College, he’ s digital lead on the Tees Valley Business Board.
Indeed, after his Tees Business Awards triumph, Imran described Tees Valley as“ probably the best place at the moment to run a business”.
He owes that coveted Teesside connection to his grandfather, Mohammed Khushi, who left Pakistan for a new life in England, helping build ships after World War Two. Initially based in Manchester, he transferred to the Port of Middlesbrough and settled in Stockton.
His son, Mohammed Anwar – Imran’ s father – was five when he came to Teesside and, as well as being a talented sportsman, he quickly displayed entrepreneurial instincts.
By 15, he sold clothes in Stockton market, then opened his shop in Thornaby, supported by his wife, Nasreen.
Lanehouse Wine Store opened from 6am to 10pm and, from the age of five, Imran and his siblings, Addnan and Sarah, were expected to help after school.
“ I learned the ground rules of business and realised if you want to achieve anything, you have to put in the hard yards,” says Imran.
He smiles as he recalls an early sense of injustice when he saw his dad pay the paperboy £ 10:“ I worked for nothing, so I offered to take over the paper round. When dad refused, I went and worked for his closest competitor!”
A year later, when the paperboy left, Imran took over his round, with his dad expecting to save the tenner. Instead, Imran charged the same fee – and carried on working for the competitor too!
“ My nature was always to push, push, push,” he concedes.
Regular family outings to Sunderland Air Show inspired Imran to dream of becoming a pilot. He joined the air cadets, got his flying wings and became a flight sergeant.
He studied A-levels at Stockton Sixth Form College and inherited the family’ s competitive spirit, ending up playing rugby for the North of England as well as the National Air Cadets Corps team, while also winning multiple athletics medals.
He earned a scholarship at Loughborough University, but it was withdrawn when he snapped his left knee playing rugby, an injury that also led to him failing the RAF medical.
While re-evaluating his life, he took a part-time job in retail with Outfit before taking his first step into the digital world, working in telecoms with Orange Retail.
THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE MASSIVE, BUT WE HAVE TO KEEP BUILDING THE RIGHT ECOSYSTEMS
The voice of business in the Tees region | 19