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Crain's 40 under 40

Sandy Chadha, 39

Director

Supreme Imports

Greatest professional achievement: Having sold the family firm, Supreme Imports, for £16.1m to private equity firm Dunedin and witnessing its subsequent failure, Chadha managed to buy the business from the administrators last September “saving the company’s heritage and jobs”, he said. In six months, it has regained credibility among its suppliers and customers.

Current business goal: To be the world’s largest manufacturer/distributor of light bulbs. Has signed an exclusive 10-year deal with Ever Ready to produce light bulbs for the company in Europe and the US.

Sandy Chadha’s father, Gurbachan, arrived in the UK from India in 1970 and started selling fancy goods for a salary of £10 a week. Before long, he set up his own firm and was supplying gifts, batteries, watches and what-ever else he could import and sell on at a profit to independent retailers. The business grew and Gurbachan sold out via a £16.1m buy-out in 2003 backed by Sand Aire Capital Partners (later Dunedin) and led by his son, Sandy. Questions were asked whether private equity was a suitable structure for a succession plan and when the market turned sour Sandy learned why — the business hit a rocky patch last year and rather than invest any more money into the venture his backers pulled the plug.

Rather than let the firm started by his father go to the wall, Sandy raised the capital to buy it back from the administrators. He predicts that by the end of its first full year the Trafford Park-based business will have achieved record sales of £28m and a £1.8m profit.