David Sanger's Success Story

Founder of Rollover Hot Dogs

“Live every day as it is your last” – this is what David Sanger’s personal philosophy sounds like. Today he is one of the biggest fishes in the hot dog business in the United Kingdom, owning Rollover Hot Dogs – a million dollar company. In fact, it wasn’t his first effort to make a career. David tried his hand at careers in law, advertising and even horticulture before realizing that starting up his own business was what he really wanted to do with his own life.

David was born on 16th of June, 1965 in South Africa. He was brought up there, because his father was an expatriate banker. On the age of 10, together with his family he moved to England, where he boarded school and later the Exeter University with a degree in Economics and Politics. After graduating, Sanger worked for an accountancy firm to train as an accountant, but three years later he failed the exams and left without qualifying.

In the course of the next few years, David tried his luck in making a career in law, even worked for an advertising company for 2 years, but in the end he realized that all of this wasn’t for him. He wanted to head up his own company, to accomplish his dream of owning a million dollar business.

A few ideas popped up in his mind, including opening a shoe shop…but in the end he hit upon the idea of opening a chain of sandwich bars. The year was 2001. David Sanger was 25 years old. Using a capital of around Ј100 000 he founded Rollover Hot Dogs and his first shop opened its doors in West London. In the beginning David Sanger worked from 5am to 9pm six days a week, but without achieving any success. Just the contrary, his business hit soon crisis point, but that didn’t stop David.

All changed on a weekend vacation in Copenhagen with his Danish girlfriend. There he bought a hot dog from a street stall and realized that all the people around him were doing the same. In contrast to England, the hot dogs in Denmark were a perception for a quality and very delicious food. He got back to UK and purchased 8 new hot dogs machines, modified so that customers could see what was going on inside. David Sanger’s business soon prospered, he started selling machines to clubs and pubs and it went so that in 1997 he sold his original sandwich bars for a total of Ј350 000 in order to concentrate on growing the hot dog business.

Today Rollover has annual revenue of over Ј10 million dollars and supplies most premiership football clubs, theme parks and concert halls in the country. David says: “It has definitely been worth it. It is not making money that has inspired me; it is wanting to be the biggest and best. I am enormously proud of what I have achieved.”

Sources used:

"My Big Idea," Sunday Times, 2007.