Music man Rob’s donuts have the X Factor
Much-travelled Rob Evans has managed a chart-topping American band and worked with X Factor guru Simon Cowell but he’s swapped that lifestyle to sell donuts to the people of Shrewsbury.
For Rob looking for a new career back home, it was the smell and taste of good times and family fun that proved the inspiration.
Like those British institutions, candy floss and a stick of rock, people could rarely pass a donut stall.
And 41-year-old Rob is hoping his new Daisy Donuts of Shrewsbury will have the same effect on shoppers at the Darwin Shopping Centre in Shrewsbury where he has set up his new kiosk.
Rob, of Spring Gardens, Shrewsbury, said: “I’ve been in the hotel and catering industry and in the music business most of my life. My partner, Sarah Marshall and I were thinking about me becoming self-employed and we thought about when we took the kids to funfairs and shows and whenever there was someone selling hot donuts there were always queues.
“Mostly when you buy donuts these days they are usually cold from supermarkets, which is not the same as hot donuts. Lots of people like donuts, it’s almost a British institution like rock and candy floss.”
Getting to Shrewsbury has been an interesting journey for Rob – it’s seen him manage a chart-topping American group and brought him into contact with Simon Cowell.
Born in Australia he was brought back to the UK as a baby and grew up in Llangollen where he attended Ysgol Dinas Bran.
After school he studied business and finance and was one of just 18 people out of 5,000 applicants to be accepted onto what was, at the time, the only UK course for music management, running in Scotland.
“It was just about the time the house music scene was taking off and I started promoting groups and doing some deejaying, but at the same time kept a full-time office job in Wrexham.
“I studied music and then went to Harare in Zimbabwe where my uncle had a record shop which I helped manage and did some deejaying as well.”
He returned from Africa and went to work for MBNA Bank but soon left for America with his first wife – whose father was in the American military – and stayed Stateside for more than five years.
After Colorado Springs he found himself in Florida where for four years he managed successful hip-hop group TGK who had chart hits and were on US TV.
It was during a three week UK tour that Rob met Tony Cowell – Simon’s brother – and that led to him “hooking up” with Simon Cowell who helped promote the group’s UK tour.
But after his divorce, Rob and son Dominic headed back to the UK in 2007 and Rob went back home to Llangollen and managed the Britannia Hotel for a while.
It was there he met current partner Shrewsbury-girl Sarah and he moved to Shrewsbury where he has set up home with Dominic, 12, and Sarah’s son Scott, 13.
“I worked in IT for a year but the commute to Bridgnorth was too much and we thought about something we could do to create work for ourselves.
“We thought about a mobile catering unit at first for the donut business but it is very hard to get venues so then we thought about shopping centres and the Darwin Centre seemed to be ideal.
“We have set up a side table also selling fudges and toffees and hope to see business building up in the run-up to Christmas.”
Kevin Lockwood, Manager of the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Shopping Centres, said: “You need something to keep you going on a day’s shopping and Rob’s donuts certainly do the trick.”
Rob is at the centre from 10am-5pm every weekday and 10-6 Saturday and 10.30-4.30 on Sundays.
