Jhai Dhillon and his brother Simmy’s dream to have their mother retire early came true after they successfully started their own company.
Kal Dhillon, 49, is now free and has the security for the rest of her life. The brothers own meal preparation business Rice n Spice Meals that finally gave their mother a chance to retire from her job at Tesco.
Jhai and Simmy, now 24 and 23 respectively, started the business at university in Bristol which was in February 2017 and now they have built a client base which includes celebrities such as Leicester City midfielder Demarai Gray, striker for Wycombe Wanderers Adebayo Akinfenwa and Love Island contestant Molly-Mae Hague.
Speaking to LADbible, 24-year-old ex-professional footballer Jhai Dhillon explained: “When my brother and I got to around 16/18 years old, we realized that mom had essentially given up her chance of a career, as her ‘job’ was raising my brother and I when we were younger.
“It wasn’t until we were older that we realized what she’d given up to ensure we’d never go without and we were always looked after.”
“So when we were old enough to not need her looking after us, it was really difficult for her to essentially start a career again, so she had to take part-time jobs in supermarkets.
“When we started the business we realized that we could essentially build something that would provide her with a role that she’d enjoy doing and she’d essentially become a manager rather than being a general staff member at Tesco.
“As the business grew, we gradually reduced the days she was working at Tesco as we could support her financially in return for her helping out at the business.”
“This continued until eventually in December 2019, she handed in her notice at Tesco and has essentially been retired since then.
“She helps out with the business a couple of times a week by managing the shifts and sits in on meetings and calls on strategy or marketing.point 242 |
But she now does this as she enjoys it and it’s her ‘new baby’ rather than because she has to for work.point 100 | She spends the rest of her week, reading, going to the gym or doing yoga now.point 162 | ”point 169 | 1
Speaking about the company growth, Jhai went on: “Initially my brother started the business at university in Bristol which was in February 2017 – we’re actually three years old this week. It was only aimed at students [at the beginning]. It worked really well, so he pushed me to start it in our home town of Hitchin, Hertfordshire in around April 2017.
“It was just me and my mom in the Hitchin branch and Simmy would help when back from uni over summer. He decided to take a gap year from uni last year and I decided to stop playing football. During that 12 month period we went from just us three, to have 16 staff.”
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