The King’s School, at the heart of Gloucester, has been the starting point for many of Gloucestershire’s entrepreneurs.  

One of King’s most awarded Gloucestershire entrepreneurs Jess Vaughan. She runs ‘Jess’ Ladies Organic Farm Milk’ and was a pupil at King’s from 1985-1999, attending both the Junior and Senior School.  After her time at King’s she went on to University of Aberystwyth to read Agriculture and Animal Science and then to join her father Mike (also a King’s alumnus) on the family farm that her Grampy bought in 1955. 

Jess has always lived at the farm in Hardwicke with her family, her sister Sophie, who also attended King’s, works alongside her. The passion for dairy farming passed to her and as a toddler she can remember sitting in the milking parlour whilst her mum and dad milked the cows. Jess says her passion for the family business and the lessons she learnt at King’s gave her the courage to take the business in a new and exciting direction.   

“It became apparent, in the early 2000s that our farming ways and our small herd of ladies with names and personalities were not going to survive, unless we did something to make it sustainable as a business. So we did. By processing our own milk on site we saw an opportunity to provide an organic milk the way nature intended and the way we were used to; full of taste, un-homogenised, fresh and untampered with; simply pasteurised and on shelf within hours. I had always had an idea to bottle our own organic milk and dad was always open to my ideas we are a great team together.” 

“We set about converting a shed on our tenanted farm to a state of the art bottling plant and to tell the story of our farm and animals through the unique brand that we created, Jess’s Ladies Organic Farm Milk. I’m not sure we ever dreamt what the next decade would hold.” 

“My dad and my sister are also former kings school pupils - we all attended the School for our entire education before going on to university. The school taught us many things, but I feel the most valuable is that anything worth doing will be hard work and whatever you put your mind too you can achieve if you are prepared to work hard. Ironically enough I didn’t actually ever study any business subjects at King’s, my A- levels were biology, English and theology!” 

It would seem that the lesson that hard work gets results, instilled in Jess, her sister and dad while pupils at King’s, continues to hold true. Jess’s latest business achievement is winning yet another Good Taste Award (their products have 70 Good Taste Stars now – one for every one of their cows!) for their most recent new product, kefir! They are launching an online kefir shop this autumn www.theladiesorganickefir.co.uk 

Another ‘King’s’ family with entrepreneurial spirit is the Ayland family. The award winning business, Completely Motoring LTD was founded in 2009 and after leaving King’s James, Charlie and George joined the family business direct from leaving 6th Form.  

James Ayland started a new division of the business, in 2014 with his father, Rob, Completely Motorbikes and the whole business was named Gloucestershire's Family Business of the Year 2017. 

James credits King’s with giving him the confidence to thrive in a business environment, ''My time at Kings gave me the confidence to progress directly into our family business and the ability to adapt in a fluid environment.'' 

The family have now expanded to six dealerships across Gloucestershire and Worcestershire with the introduction of Yamaha Motorcycles.  

It’s not just those who already have a passion for business who thrive at King’s.  Hal Woodward, Class of 2019 said he started his A-levels unsure of what he wanted to do, “I wasn’t sure what I wanted and then I started A-level Business Studies with Mr Butler and Mr Lloyd and it just clicked.” Hal worked hard during Sixth Form and made the most of all the opportunities afforded to him, “They taught us how to be independent learners and used out classroom time to verify what we had learned. The thing I enjoyed most was all the trips to see how real businesses operated.” Hal has gone on to secure a competitive business apprenticeship with Kohler Mira Ltd. 

Are you a King's entrepreneur with a story to tell or a business that would like to connect with other King's alumni?  Please do get in touch.