Ever heard of a rags to riches story? Well, the story of Penny is one such in the history of business women. While going through an article that listed the most influential women of the UK, I found Penny Streeter’s name there and later was astonished to see that she owns multiple ventures.
She is the managing director of the A24 Group, which comprises of Ambition 24hours, Arabella Health Staffing and the NS Health Staffing. A24, previously known as Ambition, provides about 100,000 hours’ work every week for healthcare professionals. The A24 Group is a multi-million dollar organization which operates in two continents. The group has propelled Penny into the limelight and earned her a spot on several magazines as one of the richest women in the UK.
Streeter was born and brought up in Zimbabwe and moved to the UK when she was 12. All was well with her life until her first venture failed while she also got divorced. With two children beside her and a third in her womb, she took shelter provided by the homeless support groups. She decided that she should turn her life around and pulled the reins by starting a second venture.
“I had nothing, not even a bank account. I had no furniture, so my mum lent me two deck chairs from her garden and I had a beanbag for the baby. She helped me buy second-hand beds. It was a horrible time. But I’ve always been optimistic and I thought: ‘Right, how am I going to drag myself out of this rut?’ I’d had a fantastic childhood and I wanted the same for my children. Living in homeless accommodation is the last thing you want for your kids. I felt l’d let them down. You think: ‘How am I going to change things, because now the buck stops with me. I had no choice but to look up instead of down.” she recalls.
She established A24 , that provided temporary staffing for the hospitals that needed 24 hour staffing services. After a decade, the venture witnessed steady growth and also began to service locum doctors, allied health professionals, carers, social workers, teachers and lecturers.
In 2004, she expanded A24 into South Africa to provide domiciliary home care services, to provide private nursing and care giver directly to people at home for post-operative, geriatric, paediatric and other care.
In 2006, she acquired the Nursing Services of South Africa, an agency that provided temporary nursing staff in South Africa. Gradually by 2009, more nursing offices were opened in UK.
Recently, Penny has also stepped into wine production and hospitality. It started with Benguela Cove vineyard, on South Africa’s Walker Bay, which has a 450-ton winery and 173 acres of vines.
She was honoured with the OBE (Order of the British Empire) 2006 New Years Honours for ‘services to enterprise’, CBI (Confederation of British Industry) Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003 and was also featured in ‘Management Today’ magazine. She currently lives in Cape Town with her husband while also spending time at their home in West Sussex.
