Route to the top

Caroline Black is ready to admit that she went into contract catering, not through a particular inclination towards catering, but because she needed a job. But that job was soon to be the start of an impressive career.

Having started in the business at the age of 19, after moving to Scotland from Belfast, Black joined Sutcliffe Catering as an assistant trainee manager. Once there, she found herself enjoying it. "I was a general dogsbody, but it was brilliant. I didn't know anything about contract catering or Sutcliffe, so I enjoyed doing the menial tasks. The more I did them, the more I understood them, and the more I understood what different roles involved."

Black was promoted to area manager and then, after two years with Sutcliffe, she left to join Gardner Merchant as a training manager and later district manager.

But, she says, she first started to feel a real commitment to her career when she was in her late twenties, while working for Kelvin, the offshore division of Gardner Merchant.

"I started to thoroughly enjoy my job, and it became a serious career. I was about 28 years old - that's a critical age," she says.

Black also liked the environment. "It was so controllable. People worked 14 days on, 14 days off. You had your own people captive for 14 days, free from outside influences, which really allows you to make things happen."

Things then really took off for Black. She joined Kelvin as a general manager and worked her way up to managing director of the subsidiary. And jet-setting all over the world was all part of it. Her job took her on regular visits to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

It wasn't long before she found herself managing director of three divisions including Kelvin. But Black's ambition to run her own company got the better of her four years ago. "I wanted to make my own decisions about my destiny," she says.

She spent 14 months vainly searching for a company to buy before launching a business from scratch. "The important thing is to do your research. And to have confidence when asking for money to back your company," she advises.

Black chose sporting stadia for her market and launched her company, Azure. "I'd researched every market and realised that stadia was the one that wasn't fully outsourced," she says.

The sector also used a wide variety of services. "It had the corporate hospitality, conferences and banqueting on non-match days, and retail. And if you had those skills, you could do racecourses, leisure attractions and any type of stadia - be it football, rugby or cricket - and galleries and museums."

Setting up on her own has been tough and there have been many setbacks. But Black doesn't regret it for a moment.

"I'm glad I did it. I'm so proud of the people that work in the company. And I get very proud when I walk around and see what we do at places and that people have taken on what I'm trying to do."

Steps along the way

• HND in hotel management from Business Studies College, Belfast.
• Joined Sutcliffe Catering at the age of 19
• Two years later joined Gardner Merchant, where she worked for 15 years.
• Set up Azure in Glasgow in 2000.
• Employs 2,300 full- and part-time staff and expects to turn over more than £15m this year.