10 Business DECEMBER 2018
The big inTerview
Boy from
Salford
has Done
good with
Peninsula
It was inspired by poor legal advice during
a tribunal in the 80s. Now global
employment consultancy Peninsula is
helping SMEs with HR and health and
safety advice across the world. Lucy Roue
meets group managing director Peter Done
at his modern Manchester base and finds a
natural nous for business like no other
P
eter Done is a man
who knows his
numbers. And it’s not
surprising really,
having built multi-
million pound
business Peninsula
from the ground up - quite literally.
Seated in his panoramic city centre
office in the modern high rise, built
during the recession, Done knows his
business inside out.
But for a lad from the ‘slums of
Salford’, who left school at 15 to join a
bookmakers, he admits the odds were
initially stacked against him.
Describing the Ordsall two-up
two-down that his family inhabited as a
youngster, the boss recalls how he and
his three siblings slept in one room.
Now, along with his older brother
Fred, they run a global business
empire, including high street betting
chain BetFred.
Yet, despite phenomenal success and
the associated wealth, business
remains his first priority.
Modest and exceptionally
hardworking, the 71-year-old details
how his business interests have just
‘evolved’ over time.
“We never stopped and thought ‘we
are rich’ or anything like that.
“We’ve always had the ambition to
run businesses and I think the key,
which has kept me doing it for 35 years,
is that I’ve loved every single minute.
“Of course, there have been problems
and aggravations, things hit the
business that you’re not sure of but I
have never said ‘I don’t want to go into
work today’.”
The Peninsula Group has 11
operating companies, seven of which
provide 24-hour advice and
consultancy across Hr, employment
law and health and safety.
In total, it has more than 75,
clients across the world - in the UK,Peter Done in his
office surrounded by
Turn To page 12 photos of his idols