Brendon Manders, who became a father at 16, has built the £1 million food brand Lumberjaxe from an initial £100, with products now stocked in more than 1,000 UK retailers including Asda, Aldi and Selfridges.
Manders, now 31, was still a schoolboy when his girlfriend Sophie became pregnant just a fortnight after his school prom in Birmingham, West Midlands. While friends prepared for college, he was raising his baby son, Reiley, with some people convinced he had thrown his future away.
From Schoolboy Dad to Entrepreneur
Manders said his biggest reward is not the retailer deals, but seeing Reiley, now 16, join him in the family business. He said: "When we had Reiley, people wrote us off. We were 16 and 17, and some thought we'd ruined our lives, and we wouldn't amount to anything."
"When you're that young, those comments stay with you. You don't necessarily know what your future will look like, but you know you want to give your family the best life you can. But it gave me a determination to prove people wrong and build something my family could be proud of. I didn't want people to look at us becoming parents so young and think that was where our story ended."
After leaving school, Manders landed an apprenticeship with an insurance company specialising in classic cars, earning around £400 a month. He worked his way up over several years while studying business administration at college. He then spotted an advert for a one-week barbering course in London and got a job at a barbershop in Birmingham, later launching his own mobile barbering business, which he ran for eight years.
Manders and Sophie married in Greece in 2015 and have four more children: Evie, 14, Charlie, eight, Ollie, seven, and Phoebe, four.
Building Lumberjaxe
Lumberjaxe's success has its roots in family gatherings and their grandad Robert's brick-built barbecue, where Manders and his brother Jaydon, 21, noticed that seasoned meat over the coals often charred and burned, prompting them to develop their own range of sauces and seasonings.
The brothers wanted to deliver wild American flavours with more natural ingredients and lower levels of salt and sugar. They started with just £100 each, making their first tins in their single mum's kitchen. Manders finally left barbering behind in early 2024 to concentrate on Lumberjaxe full-time.
He said: "In those early days, I was doing whatever needed doing. I'd do the school runs, head home and peel mangos for hours, then go out barbering until seven in the evening."
"After that, we'd be making products until 11 or 12 at night, getting everything ready for events and sales at the weekends. There wasn't really a switch-off, and it was exhausting at times. You're trying to be a good dad and husband, keep your existing business going and build something new at the same time."
Dragons' Den Turning Point
The brothers' 2025 appearance on Dragons' Den proved a major turning point, securing £90,000 investment from Emma Grede in exchange for a 20 per cent stake. Today, the company has grown into a seven-figure business.
Manders said: "My grandad's barbecue was where the idea started; he's always been a father figure to me, and he was also my best man when I got married. He's been such a massive part of all of our lives, along with my nan, and they've always been there for us."
Reiley is working alongside his dad in the business, helping take around 30 hours of work a week off his uncle Jaydon. Manders said: "Having Reiley working in the business is massive for me. He's 16 now, and seeing him come in, take responsibility and become part of something we've worked so hard to build makes me incredibly proud."
He added: "When you're young and people tell you that you won't amount to anything, you can either listen to them or use it as motivation. I chose to use it as motivation. Now I've got five children looking at me, and that's a much bigger motivation than proving anyone else wrong. I want them to see that where you start doesn't have to determine where you end up."
