Sarah Willingham - Life and Career

Life and Career

Sarah is the daughter of a maths teacher, Judith, and businessman, Rhondda, and has a younger brother Alex. She married her husband Michael Toxvaerd in 2008 and together they live in the country side outside London with their 4 children Minnie, Monti, Nelly and Marly.

Sarah Willingham is one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the high street food and leisure industry.

Management Today and The Times acknowledged her as one of the “35 most successful women under 35” in the UK. In 2007 she was voted Business Weekly’s “Young Entrepreneur of the Year”, one of the “Courvoisier Top 500”, “Who’s Who in British Business Leaders 2007”, British Telecom's “Spokesperson for Small Business Growth 2008” and “Press representative Unilever Food Solutions brand launch 2011”.

Having spent the early years of her career managing some of the biggest household names in restaurants – Planet Hollywood and Pizza Express, Sarah decided to go it alone. She successfully raised the finance to buy The Bombay Bicycle Club in 2004, and turned a heavily loss-making business of six restaurants into a profitable group of seventeen, establishing the largest chain of Indian restaurants in the UK. The business was sold in 2007.

In 2004 Sarah co-established AIM listed company, Neutrahealth PLC, which acquired six businesses in the fast growing Nutraceutical industry and was sold to Indian PLC Elder Pharmaceuticals in 2011.

Subsequently Sarah continued as a main board director of The Clapham House Group where she was responsible for three of their four brands; Tootsies, The Real Greek and The Bombay Bicycle Club, over 50 restaurants and more than 1,500 employees.

In April 2008, she became FSA-approved and co-established a private equity platform in the UK. She is also working on a number of other business ventures including a consumer-facing website, promoting food from her home town as patron for ‘The Taste of Staffordshire’, and acting as Contributing Editor for Fine Foodies magazine.

In 2011 Sarah invested in the alongside Raymond Blanc, JJ Goodman, David Moore and James Hopkins. The first Cocktail bar opened in January 2011 on Goodge Street, London and in February 2012 the London Cocktail Club added their second cocktail bar on Shaftsbury Avenue, London.

In July 2012 Sarah launched a money saving website called which aims to help people take control of their time and be smart with their money, encouraging users to take action, through 1-minute guides to various aspects of money saving.