lawyer turned entrepreneur turned best-selling author!
Lawyer turned entrepreneurSahar Hashemi founded Coffee Republic, the UK's first US style coffee bar chain with her brother and built it into one of the UK's most recognised high street brands with a turnover of £30m. Giving up highly professional jobs, she a lawyer in London and he an investment banker in New York, they staked everything on a dream – and made Coffee Republic one of the main players in the 'coffee revolution' that transformed a nation of tea drinkers into one obsessed with 'triple decaf half-caf lattes'.
Best selling authorSahar left the day to day management of Coffee Republic in 2001 and wrote a book called 'Anyone Can Do It – Building Coffee Republic from our Kitchen Table' which tackles some of the fears and answers some of the elusive questions about what it really takes to become an entrepreneur. It's a personal story about two people who stopped 'thinking about it' and 'did it'. 'Anyone Can Do It' has reached #1 on the Amazon business chart. It is 'suggested reading' for the London Business School entrepreneurship course.
Now she's doing it again... In 2005 Sahar Hashemi launched Skinny Candy, a high profile brand of sIn 2005 Sahar Hashemi launched Skinny Candy, a high profile brand of sugar free sweets. It has already received wide press coverage and is available across big department store chains throughout the UK.
In 2007 she announced the formation of a joint venture between Skinny Candy and Glisten plc.
Sahar and the management team of Glisten Plc’s Confectionery Division will work together to develop the Skinny Candy product range and particularly, to build upon its low-fat, low-calorie, confectionery credentials. Both parties feel that this is an area of the market which has very exciting growth prospects.
Sahar Hashemi and Paul Simmonds, Glisten Plc Chief Executive will be the Directors of this new joint venture.
Sahar commented, “I always talk about entrepreneurs within a large company and now I am one. It’s really exciting doing something I am passionate about and yet having the support, infrastructure and expertise of a large established company behind me. A real win-win.”
Sahar now inspires international business audiences with her unique story.
