Entrepreneur Sue Grant, Prince’s Trust Ambassador James Sommerville and former Kirklees Council Chief Executive Jacqui Gedman celebrate the King’s Birthday Honors Awards

A mother-of-three who admits she “flailed” when she first started out in business has been awarded an MBE for services to entrepreneurship.

Sue Grant, 62, from Lepton, spoke of her pride at being awarded the King’s Birthday Honors Medal.

“When I was first told about it two weeks ago in a call from the Cabinet Office, I was surprised and excited and thought it was pretty cool,” Sue said.

“I had to keep it quiet and could only tell my immediate family, which was difficult, but now I can shout it from the rooftops!”

Sue now runs award-winning family business The Body Doctor in Clayton West with sons Adam, 33, Sam, 30, and Alexander, 21, but her journey started right from scratch with nothing.

Sue returned from a short stint living in New Zealand in the mid-1990s with two young sons and needed to earn a living.

Knowing nothing about business, she saw the popularity of therapeutic wheat bags in New Zealand and decided to take the idea to the UK.

“I knew nothing about business at the time and thought a margin was a ruled line on the edge of a page,” Sue said. “I had to ask a client how to create a trade price.

“I had no idea what I was doing and in those early days it was all blasphemy. I just looked like I knew what I was doing. Actually, I had no idea.”

Sue set up Natural Wheat Bag Co Ltd in Emley, which quickly grew into a £1 million business.

“I came back from New Zealand needing a job and saw these bags of wheat and thought it must be pretty easy to get them into the UK,” she said.

“I went to the local farmer and asked him how much for a sack of wheat. It said £4.50. I told him I’d seen them on the road for £4.25 and he said: “Go and buy it then!”

“I said I would buy hundreds of tons and I wanted his best price now. In the end he gave me £4. Then I asked for the credit terms. He said, ‘For a sack?!’ I said we had to start as we meant to go on.

“We ended up buying 160 tonnes a year, so it paid off for him.”

The wheat bags were heatable products designed to ease aches and pains and Sue was soon supplying high-profile retailers including The Body Shop, Debenhams, House of Fraser, National Trust, John Lewis and shopping channel QVC.

She worked 16-hour days and was so successful that she won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The company had about 20 employees at its peak.

“Looking back, you don’t know how you got through it,” Sue said. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but when The Body Shop visited our office, I just lashed out.

“We had a health and safety document on the wall and it said ‘Health and Safety’ on the front, but the 30 pages inside were all blank sheets of paper! You couldn’t do that today.”

The business had a visit from Prince Andrew, who flew into the 3 Acres restaurant. “It was just surreal,” Sue said. “The whole of Emley has been shut down.”

Before she had her own production staff, Sue sewed wheat sacks for inmates at New Hall Women’s Prison in Flockton.

“Once, when I went to pick up an order, the prison was closed and I couldn’t get in,” she recalled. “There was another time I was trapped inside and couldn’t leave.

“That’s when I realized I couldn’t keep telling customers I was running late because the prison was closed. It was an adventure.”

But all was not a success and Natural Wheat Bag Co collapsed in February 2008. With Sue looking after her youngest son, she handed over control to a doctor who provided a £75,000 loan to a book company .

That firm collapsed, taking Sue’s company with it. However, she did not stop there and established a new business, Crazy Popular Products, producing novelty scented bags. This meant she could pay all her previous suppliers who were owed money.

“Business is all about how many times you wake up,” Sue said. “The Wheat Bag Company was like a white-knot ride.”

However, that rollercoaster of a learning curve paved the way for The Body Doctor, a serious health care business founded in 2012.

After winning the Queen’s Award in 2004, Sue was asked to design an eye care product and later an optical company, The Eye Doctor, was born.

The Body Doctor has won two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise and has grown to employ over 30 people.

TV doctor Dr Hilary Jones has been an ambassador for the company for the past eight years and continues to innovate.

Sue said The Body Doctor’s early years were tough, but everything she learned in business went into making it a success.

“Whereas the Wheat Bag Company was a white-knuckle ride, The Body Doctor is a proper business where everything is done right,” she said.

Elsewhere, other Huddersfield people to be honored in the King’s Birthday Honors List include entrepreneur and global brand designer James Sommerville.

James was awarded the OBE for services to the creative industries, entrepreneurship and disadvantaged young people.

Huddersfield-born James started his own design studio, ATTIK, from his grandmother’s attic in Paddock in the mid-1980s with a £2,000 grant from the Prince’s Trust, now The King’s Trust.

In nearly four decades, the company grew to over 1,000 employees in five studios before being sold in a multi-million dollar deal.

James became the global head of design at soft drink giant The Coca-Cola Company and now runs his own consultancy firm KnownUnknown in Atlanta, United States.

James is repaying the trust placed in him by the Prince’s Trust by being an international ambassador for the organisation, helping the next generation of young entrepreneurs.

As Patron and Enterprise Member of the Prince’s Trust, he was invited to the King’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey last year.

Speaking from the United States, James told Huddersfield Hub: “It is a great honor to receive an OBE. Not only does this recognition mean a lot to me personally and professionally, but it is a testament to the importance of creativity and entrepreneurship.

“When my art teacher, Mr Cooper from Shelley High School, suggested I go to Batley Art College, it opened my eyes to the world of design. My passion for British creativity remains central to my work today.

“Today, as an ambassador and advisor for The King’s Trust, I am delighted to contribute and help expand the charity’s amazing work for young people around the world.”

Also receiving an OBE is former Kirklees Council chief executive Jacqui Gedman (pictured above with former Kirklees Mayor Cahal Burke).

In a 22-year career at Kirklees, Jacqui held a number of council roles, including director of economy, environment and skills, before being appointed chief executive in 2017.

During her time as top officer, Jacqui led the council through the Covid pandemic and turned around a Children’s Service department that had been deemed failing in 2016.

Jacqui retired in October 2023 and has now been honored for her services to local government.

Her successor as chief executive, Steve Mawson, said: “Jacqui was a tough act to follow. She is well respected not only by her colleagues on the council but also by local councilors and all those partner organizations that provide public services in Kirklees.

“Jacqui has led this board brilliantly through some of its greatest challenges. She has been instrumental in delivering our children’s services.

“Jacqui also laid the groundwork for economic transformation across the borough. And she brought the council’s workforce together during the pandemic. To achieve all this required rare leadership qualities and a dedication to the people and communities of Kirklees.

“On behalf of her former colleagues, I am delighted to see that Jacqui’s immense contribution to Kirklees has been recognised.”

The MBE was also awarded to Huddersfield man Tony Baverstock, chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh Award in Gillingham, for services to young people in Dorset.

Banker-turned-singer Supriya Nagarajan, founder of Dewsbury-based cultural organization Manasamitra, received the BEM award for services to music.

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