Welcome back for another episode of A Cast of Entrepreneurs. Today, the cast is made up of two brilliant members of successful family businesses from the North East.

Hosts Elaine Stroud, Chief Executive of The Entrepreneurs’ Forum, and Sally Cowling, Head of Member Experience, are joined by:

Alex Devitt; Chief Operating Officer at Recovery4Life. Recovery4Life offers a proactive and collaborative approach to occupational health. They support businesses by integrating a range of physical health, mental health, and risk management services into one workplace health and wellbeing programme. Prior to Recovery4Life, Alex held various positions in high performance sales environments, and in 2015 established an independent consultancy offering white label sales provision to businesses. In 2016 Alex co-founded Recovery4Life alongside his father, John Devitt, overseeing the commercial development of the organisation.

Nadia Johnson; one of Ringtons first ever female directors. Founded in 1907 and now into its fifth generation, Ringtons remains a family-owned company based in Newcastle. In addition to tea and coffee (for which it’s best known), Ringtons also offers a range of other products including biscuits, sweets, and gift hampers delivered through a traditional doorstep delivery service. Ringtons additionally has a large tea packing division which sources, produces and packs for private label customers. Following a rigorous interview and an 18-month long assessment process, Nadia joined the company in October 2021, relocating her family from London and ending her career for Barclays as an occupational psychologist.

In this episode, the cast share stories about working in family business. They discuss how they got started in their family business and what they’ve learnt along the way. They share managing the boundaries between family and business, succession planning, and their hopes for the future of their businesses.

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Get involved with The Entrepreneurs’ Forum: https://entrepreneursforum.net/

Connect with Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-devitt/

Connect with Nadia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadia-johnson2a/