David's frying round the world!
FUNNY how life throws up surprises.
David Atkinson left school expecting to become a sheet metal worker.
Three decades later, the Hartlepool man is selling deep fat fryers for the fish and chip business in Las Vegas.
MARK THOMPSON met him.
JET-SETTER extraordinaire. That's David Atkinson.
The Hartlepool lad is making his fortune setting up fish and chip shops all over the world.
From France to Cyprus and Germany to Holland. He's helped start up chippies in them all.
The Hartlepool man jets all over the world helping set up fish and chip shops after starting Martyn Edwards, an equipment supplier to the trade, with his business partner Sean Price 18 years ago.
Shops across Europe have started up with David's help but his biggest job so far came when he helped set-up the first chippy in Pahrump, a town just outside of Las Vegas.
David, 41, said: "When I first started in this line of work I never dreamt that I would be flying around fitting fryers, it seems almost daft to think about.
"But it's a business just like any other and it's amazing how complicated it can be.
"It's supply and demand and we have to go where the business is, but as the boss I do make sure I get to do the jobs overseas."
David, of Guillemot Close, Bishop Cuthbert, Hartlepool, says he is proud to be helping make fish and chips popular across the world.
The dad-of-two said: "Hartlepool was built on fish and chips so it is great to be sending the tradition overseas. I guess you could say it's in my blood.
"Outside of the UK, fish and chip shops are few and far between but it's definitely growing and it's great to be part of that.
"Pahrump is definitely the best job so far, if not the most bizarre.
"It was like nowhere I had ever seen before. Guns are legal so everyone's walking round with one and even prostitution is allowed.
"The guy behind the bar in the pub I went to said he had never locked the door since he'd been there. It's been open 24-7 all year round.
"Pahrump must be about as close to the Wild West I think you could ever get."
David's career in the trade started following him training as a sheet metal worker after he left Henry Smith School.
After a string of jobs he decided it was not the life for him.
David said: "I always wanted to be in business by myself. It just seemed like the natural thing to do.
"I'd been working for a number of companies and ended up repairing fryers when I thought 'I could do this on my own.'
"After that me and Sean Price decided to give it a go and we haven't looked back."
His Redcar-based company is now the biggest in the UK and is upping production to tackle more overseas projects.
For the last 12 years David's family have also owned the Odd Cod chippy in Duke Street, Hartlepool, which his wife Susan, 42, runs.
David added: "Fish and chips really is the family trade and we love them but sometimes I can't even look at them never mind stomach them.
It's like a bus man's holiday."
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Weather for Hartlepool
Sunday 12 February 2012
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