Thursday, October 17, 1994 He's out of Africa with dream By DAVID SUTCLIFFE WHAT is the connection between rock band Jethro Tull, boxing promoter Barry Hearne, and publisher Lord Macmillan? The answer is, they are all one-time clients of globe-trotting Lancashire entrepreneur Tony Raynor. Blackburn's answer to Richard Branson has lived the life of which most of us can only dream. His rise to riches began at the age of 15 when he manufactured and sold tandems to cycling enthusiasts - including his headmaster - on the Fylde coast. The 33-year-old employs six people at his business, Abbey Telecom, on Blackburn's Higher Church Street, which for two years has supplied telecommunication systems to local companies. After leaving college, Mr Raynor was snapped-up in Liverpool by a Canadian curtain manufacturer, and spent three months working as a teenager in Montreal, before returning to England. Importer In 1985 Mr Raynor recognised the market potential of the new cellular mobile phones and went down to London to work for an importer of Mitsubishi telephones. At the time of their launch only the rich and famous bought them, he recalled. Mr Raynor's clients included lan Anderson, famous rock band Jethro Tull, Barry Hearne the boxing promoter and publisher Lord Macmillan! But he wanted to make mobile telephones available to a wider section of the business community. I had a vision that normal people could come into a high street shop and buy mobile telephones, he said. Before the year was out Mr Raynor and a partner had achieved this goal. They opened only the second cellular telephone dealership in the UK, on the North Circular Road at Wembley. This was a huge success, employing 19 installers to cope with demand for their products. I actually supplied goods to customers in Blackburn when I was still in London, because there were so few suppliers in East Lancashire, Mr Raynor said. He sold the business in 1990, packed a rucksack and headed for Africa, and in just 12 months had taken in the Sahara Desert, and visited 24 countries, finishing up in Malawi. Experience While recovering from this experience of a lifetime, Mr Raynor was invited to join Mercury Communications, as marketing manager. But, his Blackburn interests have been equally successful and he favours the business environment in this East Lancs. Ha said it was more enjoyable doing business in East Lancashire compared with London because here you need only do your job well in order to get new customers. It is such a tight-knit community that if a job has been done well people tell each other. In the South that doesn't happen, he said.

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