Duncan Walker Bannatyne, OBE (born 2 February 1949) is a Scottish entrepreneur, philanthropist and best selling author. His business interests include health clubs, hotels, media, TV, stage schools, property and transport. He is most famous for his appearance as a business angel on the BBC programme Dragons' Den. He has written four books; Anyone Can Do It sold more than 250,000 copies and Wake Up and Change Your Life quickly entered the Sunday Telegraph top selling books list, as did How to be Smart With Your Money which was followed by How to be Smart With Your Time. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contribution to charity.
Born in 1949 in the town of Clydebank, Bannatyne was raised in a house in Dickens Avenue in a relatively poor family. Bannatyne was told by his mother that, due to the family's lack of money, he could not have a bicycle. To amend the problem he asked the local newsagents if he could have a paper round job and was told he could have one if he could get a list of one hundred interested people. Duncan then knocked on 150 doors to create that list of one hundred customers. Armed with this list, young Bannatyne received the job and months later, a second-hand bike.
In 1964 and at the age of 15, Bannatyne volunteered for twelve years with the Royal Navy as a junior second class engineering mechanic (stoker) at RNTE Shotley near Ipswich, better known as the boys' training establishment HMS Ganges. He served in the Navy for several years before receiving a dishonourable discharge for attempting to throw an officer off a boat landing jetty in Scotland. In his biography he claims this was in part a reaction to this officer's abuse of his authority, in part a dare by his shipmates and in part a way of getting out of the Navy, with which he had become disillusioned. Bannatyne was only nineteen years old when this happened. After the incident he had to serve eighteen months in the tough Colchester military detention centre before being discharged aged 20. He later spent ten days in Glasgow's Barlinnie prison for not paying a £10 fine in relation to a charge of breach of the peace and resisting arrest..
After spending his twenties moving from one job to another, Bannatyne lived for a few years on the island of Jersey where he met his first wife. With a difficult business climate for outsiders, at age 29 Bannatyne and his wife moved to Stockton-on-Tees in northern England. He has stated that he was penniless and did not have a bank account until the age of 30. Bannatyne's business career began almost immediately after his move to Stockton-on-Tees with an ice cream van purchased for £450. He soon expanded by buying more vans and eventually sold the business for £28,000, founding a nursing home business instead. He sold his nursing home business Quality Care Homes for £26 million in 1996 and children's nursery chain Just Learning for £22 million.
He has since expanded into health clubs, with the popular Bannatyne's Health Clubs chain to his name, and also to bars, hotels and property. He recently acquired twenty two health clubs from Hilton Hotels at a price of £92 million. Bannatyne's is now the largest independent chain of health clubs in the United Kingdom. In May 2010, he added the Charlton House Hotel and Spa in Somerset to the portfolio, with the view to adding more spa facilities and treatment rooms.
In October 2008 in defiance of the credit crunch he opened the £12 million "Bannatyne Spa Hotel" in Hastings.
In December 2009 Bannatyne joined the UK's largest monthly business magazine Business Matters as a monthly columnist alongside former Apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry
In January 2010, Bannatyne appeared alongside his Dragons' Den co-stars Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden in the fifth episode of the sixth series of Hustle.
His wealth as of 2010 was estimated at £320 million by the Sunday Times Rich List.
Charity works
Bannatyne received his OBE partly in recognition for his work with charities such as Mary's meals. In Romania where over a ten year period he has funded several projects, notably Casa Bannatyne in Tārgu-Mure?, a hospice for orphans with HIV and AIDS in which he invested £80,000.
In March 2008 established the Bannatyne Charitable Foundation with a personal injection of £1,000,000.
On 19 May 2008 Bannatyne added his support to the launch of the Geared for Giving Campaign at the House of Commons to encourage UK business leaders to set up and promote a Workplace Giving scheme to benefit UK registered charities with tax effective donations through employees pay.
On 29 August 2008, Bannatyne appeared on the popular television programme Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and raised £20,000 for the charity NCH.
Bannatyne became President of the charity No Smoking Day in October 2008. The charity runs the annual health awareness campaign - helping people who want to stop smoking.
In November 2008 he was voted "The Most Admired Celebrity Charity Champion" by Third sector magazine.
Bannatyne is a trustee of Comic Relief and on 27 November 2008 he travelled to Ethiopia with other trustees of Comic Relief. On Saturday 29 November they visited Debre Zeit; Bannatyne said "the most significant part of that day for me was when we were shown that people are taught how to sow vegetables so they can grow them in their own homes, in addition to the training programme the project supplies seeds and tools so that they can become self sufficient". They then were taken to have a look where a woman had gone through the programme and was now growing her own plants ready for sale, her whole garden was taken up an amazing array of plants. Bannatyne presented her with the Bannatyne/Ethiopia award for best entrepreneur of the year.
For Children In Need, Bannatyne, along with the rest of the Dragons, helped two women by completely refurbishing their run down children's youth centre.
Politics
Bannatyne has previously supported the UK Conservative Party (under MargaretThatcher) and then switched to support the Labour Party under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. This is evidenced in a 2008 promotional video supporting Gordon Brown.
Appearing on the Question Time panel on 7 February 2008, Bannatyne stated he had been a donor to the Labour Party under Tony Blair. He also voiced his support for Gordon Brown, but criticised the Cabinet for what he deemed "petty squabbles based on personal ambition".
He has six children: four with his first wife, Gail; Hollie, Abigail, Jennifer and Eve and two with his current wife, Joanne McCue; Emily and Tom. He also has one grandchild, from his eldest daughter.
McCue was Bannatyne's former director of nursing with Quality Care Homes. He proposed to her in Barbados in early 2006, and married her on 11 November 2006 at St Mary's Church in Norton, Stockton-on-Tees. Celebrities at the ceremony included Anna Ryder Richardson, Cherie Lunghi, Gary McCausland, Dragons' Den presenter Evan Davis and fellow Dragons Theo Paphitis, Richard Farleigh, Simon Woodroffe and Deborah Meaden. Pop star Marc Almond then performed for 200 guests in the warehouse next to his company's head office.
Bannatyne and his family live in England and France, maintaining homes in Wynyard in the north-east of England, and Covent Garden, London. They have a holiday villa in Mougins, near Cannes.
Bannatyne was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science (D.Sc.) by Glasgow Caledonian University on 5 July 2006 for services to business and charity. He was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) from the Teesside University (formerly University of Teesside) on 6 February 2009.
Bannatyne celebrated his 60th birthday at Murano's in London with celebrities such as David Coulthard, James Caan, Theo Paphitis and Anna Ryder Richardson. A second party was held in the North East which was headlined by UK soul singer Beverley Knight and featured Chesney Hawkes. The celebration took place in a converted warehouse in Darlington, County Durham.
Bannatyne openly discussed having had cosmetic surgery under his eyes on The Graham Norton Show.Bannatyne also appeared on the Irish chat show Tubridy Tonight.
