Entrepreneur Sir Gulam K. Noon MBE

Born Gulam Kaderbhoy Noon in 1937. His father, who belonged to Rajasthan, had died young. His mother was a native of Shiraz, Iran, from where she came as a child with her Sufi father. Married to Mohini Kent, 1998; two daughters, Zarmin and Zeenat, who both work in the family business. Career : Sir Gulam Noon is Chairman and Managing Director of Noon Products Ltd. he began his career in Bombay at the age of 17, managing the family business, Royal Sweets. He started working there part time in between schooling after his father's death when he was just 7 years old. Sir Gulam came to Britain in the 1960s to set up a Royal Sweets factory in West London. In 1980 he moved again, this time to New York, where he did extensive research, with the backing of the Taj Group of Hotels, into the technology required for the bulk manufacture of Indian frozen food. In 1984 he returned to London to expand his confectionery business and assess the market for Indian ready meals and launched a ready-made curry company in 1988 with just 11 staff. His friends and family suggested he buy six vans to distribute the product to local stores, but Noon had bigger ideas. He went to Birds Eye which, a year later, gave him his first order. He took on 70 more employees. Then, within a matter of months, Sainsbury's placed an order for 2,000 meals a week. Later he decided to go upmarket with a "Bombay Brasserie" range designed to mass-reproduce dishes from the celebrated London restaurant of that name. Within 14 years his workforce in Southall's unemployment high-spot had grown to 800 people. In 2006 Prince Charles opened Noon's new state-of-the-art factory - the only one in the UK to have Microban walls and floors. It cooks 1.5 million curries a week. The business turned over £105m in 2005. Voted Asian of the Year 1993-1994. Sir Gulam received an MBE in 1996 and a knighthood in 2002. He was elected the first non white president of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2002 for 126 years, and in 2004 won the Asian Business Award for Community Services. Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from Kingston University. He is a trustee of numerous charities and Chairman of the Noon Foundation which supports a wide range of causes both at home and abroad. Hobbies/Activities : His main recreation is cricket and he is a regular player on the Noon Products Cricket Club (NPCC) team during the season. A keen athlete, he heads a special committee to modernise and expand the facilities at the Indian Gymkhana Club in West London. He was appointed a Justice of Peace in Bombay in 1969. He is a Director of the West London Training Enterprise Council ( Ealing, Hounslow, Hillingdon and Richmond-upon-Thames ) of the Board of Trade and is often called upon to speak to young entrepreneurs. He is Chairman of Noon Products plc; Managing Director of Bombay Halwa Ltd (Royal Sweets); Director of Taj International Hotels Ltd; Director of Obydon Ltd (Bombay Brasserie).