Page 12 - Survey 2020: The Star Business

12 THESTAR www.thestar.co.uk Wednesday,January22,2020
START-UP SPECIAL
In association with
Angelo Balestra, in one of his shirts, and wife Sabrina.
Luxury shirts that empower tradition
A former headteacher is tasting success after launching a sweet cart firm.
Jodie Hodkin sells locally-sourced sweets and homemade treats at weddings and events - and has even been hired by Wetherspoons. Little Miss Sweetie Hire is now looking forward to a series of wedding bookings. Jodie, based in Rotherham, gave up teaching to spend more time with her seven-year- old daughter - and make her snack-making hobby her new job.
She said: “The positive reception I have received since launching the busi- ness is really promising and over the last month, I have taken a lot of bookings for spring weddings which I can’t wait to tackle.” Jodie also offers four-foot LED lights that spell out ‘LOVE’ which can be hired
to display on a wedding dance floor. Other clients so far include Rotherham Parent/Carers Forum. Jodie received a grant from UKSE.
“As my father worked for Rotherham Engineer- ing Steel for 20 years the work that UKSE does is something that really reso- nates with me. I would like to thank them and the Rotherham Investment Development Office (RIDO) for helping me set up this business and I hope it will expand both in services and personnel over the coming years.”
Alan Stanley, of UKSE said: “It’s great to see Jodie provide event hire services that were not already avail- able. Her sweet cart is charming, and I wish her all the best.” UKSE also provides loan and equity finance of up to £1m.
Jodie finds local sweet spot with cart business
Angelo Balestra was born into a home that produced handmade shirts in Italy.
His dad launched a shirt business in 1980 and Angelo started helping when he was eight, sewing on buttons. He grew up, moved to the UK and climbed the corporate ladder. But after putting some money
aside, in October he realised his dream - sharing with the world what his mum and dad started. Today Diroma1980 sells handmade Italian shirts, made in the same town, he says, where all the major designer brands make their clothes. The luxury brand aims to ‘empower the modern
man with the art of tradi- tion’. Angelo said: “The soul of Diroma 1980 revolves around my Italian roots and the love for my land. Our shirts are entirely made in my hometown in the South of Italy, Francavilla Fontana, following the most traditional process that has been used
for years. We want to echo to the world the finest crafts- manship imprinted in our products. I was eight when I started helping my family. My dad would cut the designs, my mum would make the shirts and me and my sister would be working on the buttons.”
www.diroma1980.net
Jodie Hodkin with Alan Stanley.
Recruiter growth plans
Pasta dream now a reality
A Rotherham entrepre- neur who set his sights on tacklingskillsshortagesinen- gineeringandmanufacturing withtechnologyisplanningto expand his business by dou- bling headcount and opening offices in West Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
Luke Bell realised that many companies operat- ing in the engineering sector were being held back, simply because they were unable to find the skilled staff needed to grow. After teaming up with recruitment consultant and businesspartnerSamWilkin- son, the entrepreneurial duo
Luke Bell.
began developing a specialist recruitment business, which sought to tackle the growing problem. The duo began ex- ploring the concept last De-
cember and after spending time researching, develop- ing and testing their business idea, they launched Metalis, which is based in the RiDO- operated Fusion@Magna- Business Centre in April 2019. Today,Metalisemploysseven. Luke Bell said: “Finding and retaining staff is a perennial problemwhichcanstiflebusi- nessgrowth.“Manybusiness- es invest vast sums of money each year in a bid to plug skills gaps.SamandIhadworkedto- gether previously and we felt thatourcombinedknowledge couldhelpbusinessestoover- come a key issue.”
When Viktoria Garbett’s youngest daughter started school she finally had the en- ergy to start a business which madeherheartsing-teaching people how to make fress pas- ta from scratch.
The idea for Twiddle came after fun times cooking and baking with her daughters. Here eldest, eight-year-old Annabel had been a fussy eat- erandshewasdesperatelytry- ing to cook all sorts to get her into eating and enjoying food.
Annabel and sister Mia al- ways loved past making and Viktoria started experiment- ing with colouring the dough
Viktoria Garbett.
to hide more nutritious in- gredients. It was so successful theykeptinvitingtheirfriends around to roll the dough.
Eventually, Viktori was asked if she could do a friend’s daughter’s birthday party for
15. She said: “I only had the name of the business and a half done logo, one pasta machine and a few cutters. I wasn’t ready at all and had just six days to pull it off but I wasn’t going to say no.”
Now she runs monthly pasta workshops at Kooc Ca- fe,doesprivatedinnerparties, children’s birthday parties, Beavers/ Rainbows / Brown- ies, clubs, children’s holiday club activities and corporate team building cooking work- shops. She had “great help” from Natalie Fletcher at Busi- ness Sheffield. viktoria.gar- bett@gmail.com