From homeless accommodation in Sutton to an international group
My Story
‘One of the most influential entrepreneurs of our time’ from a homeless refuge with three children to a £200 million international empire, and not a penny borrowed to build it.
Roots & Displacement
Zimbabwe · Johannesburg · England · 1967 – 1984
Born of two continents,
displaced by one…
Penelope Marion Stiff was born on 1 August 1967 in Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - daughter of South African best-selling author Peter Stiff and Marion Hewson. Hers was a childhood shaped by the vast skies, the wildlife, and the deep political tensions of southern Africa. In 1979, those tensions erupted. The family left. Penny arrived in England with her mother at twelve, educated briefly at Alberton High in Johannesburg before the move became permanent.
At fifteen she left school and trained first as a beauty therapist a career that didn't last long. "I didn't enjoy that," she later recalled. The pivot came by accident. She walked into a recruitment agency in Wallington, South London, looking for a job. They told her they were short-staffed and sat her behind the desk instead. She had found her industry. Her mother Marion, who had worked in HR, joined her. Together they ran separate successful branches of the same firm doing so well that the owner called them both in and told them they were earning too much commission. They were fired for doing too well. Penny and Marion filed that lesson away, and in 1989 they started their own recruitment business together. It was the beginning and the first of many obstacles they would face side by side.
“I've always been optimistic. I thought: right how am I going to drag myself out of this rut? ”
- Penny Streeter OBE · The Daily Mail
England, 1989–1995
The fall, and the floor
A dingy flat in Croydon,
two deckchairs, and a plan
After being fired, Penny and Marion launched their own recruitment business in 1989. It failed the early-1990s recession was brutal, the debt collectors came, and everything fell apart. Penny's marriage collapsed under the same pressure. She found herself nine months pregnant with her third child, living in emergency accommodation provided by Croydon Council, with no furniture except two deckchairs loaned by her mother. Adam was six. Giselle was two. There was no money for food except what benefits and her mother's occasional help provided. She bought the children's clothes at car boot sales. She stayed two years.
What had brought her back to England in the first place was her youngest daughter catching meningitis while the family was living in South Africa. The illness caused everything to be re-evaluated. They returned to the UK with nothing. The marriage broke down. She was pregnant. She ended up in a women's refuge. "I think when the midwife came to see me," she told Recruiter Magazine, "I sat on the bean bag and she sat on a deck chair." She remembers smiling as she says it, despite the bleakness of the memory.
The route back started with a corner of a friend's office. Despite Marion telling her she was "insane," they divided the days between childcare and work one taking the children, the other working, and then switching. At weekends they ran children's discos to finance the advertising. No loans. No investors. Just absolute clarity about what she was going to do, and the stubbornness not to accept that it couldn't be done.
"It was a horrible time. But I've always been optimistic and I thought: right, how am I going to drag myself out of this rut?" By June 1996, the business had turned over its first million pounds. By March 1999 she bought her first three-bedroom house. Rob Moore's Disruptors podcast later called hers an "incredible, motivational and emotional rollercoaster" and that, for once, was not an overstatement.
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£20k
Debt at her lowest point in 1989
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2 Years
In homeless accommodation
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£200M+
Group valuation, and growing
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100k+
Healthcare hours placed weekly
Ambition 24hours
Sutton, Surrey, 1996
The idea that
changed everything
The business started in the finance sector supplying NatWest with staff. But Penny and Marion, alternating childcare duties daily, kept noticing the same gap. Healthcare agencies operated 9 to 5. Hospitals needed staff at 2am, on bank holidays, on Christmas morning. Nobody was answering. In 1996 they pivoted, renamed the company Ambition 24hours, and built their service around the one thing the market was conspicuously missing: availability. "We were one of the first providers to recognise the need for staffing suppliers to be ready to respond to emergency requirements on a 24-7 basis," Penny later said. The name was not incidental. It was a manifesto.
The company grew at a speed that surprised everyone except Penny. By June 1996 it had turned over its first million. By March 1999 she was able to buy her first house a three-bedroom in Surrey something she described as a profound personal milestone. In March 2001, Tilly was born, the fourth child and first with Nick. Juggling four children with the fastest-growing company in the UK was, she said, challenging. She managed it anyway. By 2002 they were ranked No.1 in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 Britain's fastest-growing company, three years running. By 2004, revenues exceeded £50 million.
The group expanded to South Africa that same year, drawn in part by Penny's own roots there and her conviction about the quality of South African staff. "Fantastic staff!" she told The South African when asked what South Africa has that the UK doesn't. "South Africans are some of the hardest working people. They have a strong work ethic and are customer service orientated." In 2009, the group won a contract with the Western Cape Department of Health becoming the first nursing agency on the continent to offer a true 24-7 service. Today the A24 Group places over 100,000 hours of healthcare professionals every week across the UK, South Africa, Australia, and the USA. Penny's son Adam serves as Chief Executive, carrying the founding values into a second generation.
"The qualities you need to succeed are drive and determination. It's all about common sense and knowing your market. As we grew bigger, you have other people's livelihoods that you're responsible for. I still have this fear that if I don't work hard"
The OBE · 2006
Services to Enterprise
Penny received her Order of the British Empire in the 2006 New Year Honours, recognising a decade of building a business of genuine national importance, without conventional advantages. The CBI named her Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003. Management Today placed her in the Top 100 Entrepreneurs for two consecutive years, as the highest-ranked woman both times. The South African Chamber of Commerce named her Business Woman of the Year in 2019.
The drive in her own words
What keeps her going
“The qualities you need to succeed are drive and determination.
It's all about common sense and knowing your market.
As we grew bigger, you have other people's livelihoods that you're responsible for. I still have this fear that if I don't work hard; the world moves very quickly and you can become uncompetitive. There is always the fear of losing everything.”
The wine & land chapter
From healthcare to the vine
Building a Hospitality Empire
Penny first came to Benguela Cove as a customer. She and Nick were looking for somewhere to launch their boat on the Bot River Lagoon near Hermanus, and fell completely in love with the place. When the original developer died in 2013 and the property development ground to a halt, leaving homeowners wondering about their investments Penny stepped in and bought the entire 200-hectare estate. "I called it 'I swallowed the spider to catch the fly,'" she explained of the moment she realised that a boutique property rescue had become a 200-hectare wine estate, a winery, a restaurant, and a full residential development. She leaned in entirely. As Developer and shareholder, she oversees the ongoing development and sale of luxury homes and plots 124 plots and a hotel site (future development) within the vineyards, fynbos and lagoon frontage of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. The wine chapter then expanded to three further estates across two continents and in Leonardslee one of the largest garden restoration projects undertaken in the United Kingdom in nearly thirty years. The vision at Leonardslee was total: within the Grade I Listed gardens, Penny planted sparkling wine cultivars and the UK's first commercial Pinotage vineyard alongside the famous colony of wallabies, roaming deer and working beehives. Three miles away at Mannings Heath, a further 38 acres of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier were planted in 2017. Together, the two sites form Leonardslee Family Vineyards a single wine identity grown across two distinctive Sussex landscapes under cellar master Johann Fourie.
The significance of what she was undertaking was recognised immediately by those who matter most. In June 2018 a full year before the gardens reopened to the public Robin Lane Fox, the Financial Times' gardening correspondent since 1970 and the world's longest-running gardening columnist, made the pilgrimage to Leonardslee and wrote about it for the FT. Lane Fox is not given to easy enthusiasm. He walked the steep paths into the valley amid the clearance work and found Loder's great hybrid rhododendrons some over a hundred years old - still standing and flowering: Loderi, Loder's White, King George, Jubilee Queen, the near-impossible-to-buy Spearmint, Game Chick "smothered in flowers." He compared the view from the house to "looking out on to a Chinese hillside in which superb beauties have fought and won space." Of Penny, he wrote directly: "If anyone has the energy and planning to revive the place, it has to be Streeter." He noted that she had already taken on eleven gardeners and a head gardener, and that their assignment "makes the Lost Gardens of Heligan look rather tame." He closed by wishing Penny and her "brave new gardeners the very best." That same year, Leonardslee Gardens was featured on BBC Two's Gardeners' World. To receive the FT's most authoritative gardening voice and a Gardeners' World visit while still in restoration before a single visitor had paid to enter was a signal that Leonardslee was not being rescued. It was being restored to its rightful place.
“If anyone has the energy and planning to revive the place, it has to be Streeter. Their assignment makes the Lost Gardens of Heligan look rather tame.”
- Robin Lane Fox · Financial Times, June 2018 · Writing about Leonardslee during restoration, a year before it reopened
Conservation
Protecting what exists
Conservation is not a footnote in Penny's businesses it is the operating philosophy. Benguela Cove holds WWF Conservation Champion status for protecting the Cape Floral Kingdom and the Succulent Karoo. The estate works with the Cape Leopard Trust via camera traps, and with iNaturalist a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic to monitor the estate's biodiversity. Leonardslee is a Sustainable Wines of Great Britain member. Restaurant Interlude holds a Michelin Green Star for its zero-waste, ethically-sourced seasonal cuisine under chef Jean Delport. Both estates practice hannuwa the ancient /Xam San philosophy of living in sustainable harmony with the natural world.
Community
The debt she repays
Having sat on a bean bag in a Croydon flat with two deckchairs and no furniture, Penny became Patron of the Hermanus Night Shelter Association in 2018 the shelter closest to her South African home at Benguela Cove. She supports it through annual fundraising events and personal involvement. The decision was not strategic. It was personal. She has spoken about the experience of homelessness with unusual directness in The Sun, in the Sunday Times Magazine, to Rob Moore on the Disruptors podcast, and to audiences of entrepreneurs around the world because she believes the most useful thing a successful person can do is tell the truth about where they started. "There is always the fear of losing everything," she told The South African. That fear, she says, is part of what makes her keep building.
A Life In Chapters
Penny Streeter In Time
Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
Daughter of author Peter Stiff and Marion Hewson. A childhood shaped by the landscape and politics of southern Africa.
Forced to leave Zimbabwe
Political unrest. The family leaves everything. Penny arrives in England at twelve with her mother Marion. Educated at Alberton High, Johannesburg until 1983.
Enters work at fifteen
Leaves school via the Youth Training Scheme. Begins her career in recruitment — the sector she would one day dominate.
First company — and the fall
Her daughter catches meningitis in South Africa, prompting the family's return to the UK with nothing. The recruitment business collapses. Her marriage to Douglas breaks down. Nine months pregnant with her third child, she moves into a Croydon flat with two deckchairs and goes on benefits. She stays two years.
Ambition 24hours founded
With Marion Hewson. Born from a corner of a friend's office and weekend children's discos to fund the advertising. Started in finance — supplying NatWest — then pivoted to healthcare. By June 1996: £1 million in revenue. By 1999: Penny buys her first house.
The founding moment
Sunday Times Fast Track — No. 1 in the UK
Britain's fastest-growing company. Three consecutive Fast Track rankings. Revenue exceeds £50M by 2004. Expansion to South Africa same year.
CBI Entrepreneur of the Year
Confederation of British Industry recognition. Management Today ranks her the highest-placed woman in the UK Top 100 Entrepreneurs — for two years running.
OBE — New Year Honours
Order of the British Empire for Services to Enterprise. The honour recognises a decade of building a business of national importance without conventional resources.
Benguela Cove acquired
Walker Bay, Hermanus. The 200-hectare lagoon estate begins Penny's chapter in hospitality and conservation. Now ranked in the World's Top 100 Vineyards.
A new chapter begins
Mannings Heath — UK's first golf & wine estate
Championship golf meets Sussex sparkling wine. A new category in British luxury hospitality. The Leonardslee Family Vineyards label launches.
Leonardslee acquired — the great restoration
Eight years of closure. The largest UK garden restoration since the Lost Gardens of Heligan. 240 acres. Seven lakes. Grade I Listed. Reopened April 2019.
Largest UK garden restoration in 30 years
Financial Times & BBC Gardeners' World
A full year before reopening, Robin Lane Fox — the Financial Times' gardening correspondent since 1970, widely considered the most authoritative gardening voice in British print — visits Leonardslee and writes about it. That same year, Penny and Leonardslee appear on BBC Two's Gardeners' World. The gardening world takes notice.
Pre-opening national recognition
Restaurant Interlude — Michelin Star
Chef Jean Delport — only the second South African chef ever to earn a Michelin Star. Michelin Green Star 2024. Michelin Key for Leonardslee House 2025. AA Overall UK Restaurant of the Year 2025. One of England's most celebrated dining destinations.
Leonardslee Family Vineyards launches
Blanc de Blancs 2020, Brut Reserve 2021, Brut Rosé 2021. The Rosé includes Pinotage — the first English sparkling with Pinotage. Scores: Brut Reserve 96 pts WineGB (Trophy winner), 95 pts Decanter, 94 pts IWC Silver. Blanc de Blancs 94 pts Decanter, 93 pts James Suckling. Poured at the King's Birthday Party in Paris and Oslo; ProWein; Government trade events in New York. Decanter Buying Guide cover. Oz Clarke, Jamie Goode, Sam Caporn MW and Jancis Robinson all write. Eighteen months after launch: No. 56 in the World's Best Vineyards 2025.
First Pinotage English Sparkling · No. 56 World's Best 2025 · Decanter Buying Guide Cover
A global group, still building
Healthcare staffing across the UK, South Africa, Australia, and the USA. Wine estates on two continents. Conservation across three ecosystems. A24 Group under the second generation. The work continues.
Recognition & Awards
A Career In Citation
Explore the collection
From healthcare staffing across four continents to one of the UK's most decorated wine estates.