Brompton owners

This bit caught my eye:

“Butler-Adams has had a gift for business since boyhood. ‘I was permanently flogging stuff. I got Mum to sew beer towels together – to make bedspreads [to sell]. I was obsessed, because I had no money. I had a very privileged upbringing, but my parents gave me no money.’

When he arrived at Newcastle University, he saw another opportunity. Instead of paying rent, he convinced his father to lend him £20,000 as a deposit to buy a house – the first of five he acquired and still owns today. Those houses, too, play a pivotal part in the story. For when the time came to buy Ritchie out in 2008, it was they that Butler-Adams, who earns £210,000 a year, leveraged to raise the £400,000 he needed. ‘Those houses have been amazing. Saved my bacon.”