SOME entrepreneurs start young. Peter Nabridnyj was only 12 when he bought his
first business - a paper round that he purchased from a local wholesaler
with his pocket money. He employed his sister and a school friend to deliver
the papers, and made between £9 and £11 every Sunday morning.
“It was an opportunity that I saw and had to take,” he said. “I just wanted to
make some money.”
Nabridnyj went on to try many more ways of making money before finding success
in the greetings-cards business that he owns and which has sales of £3m a
year.
He was born in 1960 in Huddersfield. His Ukrainian father and Italian mother
spoke limited English but worked hard – his father as a plasterer and his
mother in a woollen mill - to make sure that his childhood was comfortable.
Nabridnyj attended his local school but lost interest by the age of 13. He had
to stick out three more years, but then left with no idea of what he was
going to do.
After passing his driving test, he began to buy and sell cars. He bought them
at a local auction, tidied up the paintwork and carried out repairs, and
then sold them on privately. The natural progression was to train as a
mechanic, which he did, but he decided he did not want to make it his career.
“It seemed like the obvious thing, but I soon realised it wasn’t for me,” he
said.
So, aged 18, Nabridnyj started up his second business. He and a friend bought
a shop and sold DIY and garden supplies. The store was profitable until B&Q
opened a branch nearby. The pair sold up and Nabridnyj decided to go abroad.
“I felt a bit unsure of the next step, so I bought a camper van and headed
overseas with a couple of friends,” he said.
They ended up in the south of France, where they found work crewing on private
yachts.
“We got a bit of a reputation for working hard and being a good team, so we
were never out of work,” he said.
Nabridnyj stayed abroad for eight years, moving from boat to boat. However,
when he met a Norwegian who wanted to start a property business in England,
Nabridnyj decided to return to Yorkshire to help him. But it was 1986 and
the property market was weak, so Nabridnyj looked for other business ideas.
He saw an advertisement in The Times for a greetings-card distributorship
based in Halifax. He took out a bank loan of £10,000 to buy it and began to
sell the cards.
However, he soon realised he was not happy with the set-up. “I was good at
selling the cards, but the supplier wasn’t reliable and the cards weren’t
really what I wanted,” he said. “I wanted hundreds of the same design, not
just mixed dozens.”
So Nabridnyj decided to produce his own cards. Using £1,000 of his capital, he
commissioned a local artist to come up with six designs. He printed 2,000
and sold them - under the name Riverside Cards - alongside the wholesaler’s
products. The cards were supplied to the retailers free of charge, so they
paid only for what they sold.
“I wanted to provide retailers with not just a great product, but a unique
service, to stand out from competitors,” he said. “That is why I decided to
offer them as a free consignment service.”
The cards sold rapidly and Nabridnyj took out a second bank loan of £5,000 to
expand his range to 24 designs. He also began to think seriously about
Riverside Cards as a business.
“At that time I was working out of a bedroom in my parents’ home. It was just
me. So I employed someone to find new outlets in order to grow things.”
At the end of the first year, sales were £30,000 and he was supplying two
people on a wholesale basis and 150 local outlets. Over the next three
years, this increased to 25 wholesale customers and 1,000 outlets across
Yorkshire. Sales doubled each year and Riverside Cards expanded - first into
a large office building, and then into a rented mill in Halifax.
Fifteen years later, Riverside Cards has annual sales of £3m, provides cards
to more than 12,000 retailers and operates in France, Spain, Portugal and
Ireland.
Nabridnyj admits that he has made mistakes along the way. In 1995, Riverside
Cards opened up a sister company in Canada. The move proved too much.
“The principle was that we would be sending cards to Canada and dollars would
be coming back,” he said. “But in reality we were sending cards to Canada
and dollars to Canada.”
Nabridnyj managed to sell the Canadian business to its manager and, despite
the losses, he claims the experience was invaluable. The vice-president of
the company in Canada was an experienced businessman who was happy to give
Nabridnyj advice.
“He taught me a huge amount about business ethics and such like,” he
said. “I learnt more than if I had gone to university.”
Nabridnyj encourages other budding entrepreneurs to follow his example.
“Take as much advice from other people as possible. Use their experience to
your advantage.” He puts the secret of his success down to his
determination. “I’ve never given up and never taken no for an answer,” he
said.
Nabridnyj has since foundeda second business, a property company called
Aspasia.
He is married and has three children – his youngest already showing signs of
having inherited his entrepreneurial skills. “They trade football cards in
the playground and he always seems to come out on top,” he said.
