A man from Toxteth who was once 'headed for jail' is now a successful businessman after he was shown the error of his ways by his girlfriend, who is now his wife.
Tony Grice, 42, from Toxteth, was born into a life where crime and not knowing "when the next meal was coming from in" was the norm. As a boy he went through a circular, day-to-day existence that had him in constant trouble with the police and in court, and despite what he calls a 'good upbringing', thanks to his parents, he was destined for jail, being a product of the environment in which he was raised.
Yet, Tony is now a successful businessman, and after multiple ventures including a Beatles tour company and a minibus company, he owns FIKA coffee shop which has just opened a new spot on the waterfront.
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He said: "I had a tough upbringing where basically I was just headed for jail, really. I was arrested several times. I was in court a lot. I was a product of the environment I was brought up in. I was headed for jail but I just kind of accepted it.
"You saw children who were a bit older than you, and they were already going to jail. Then when they were out they were robbing cars and selling drugs". His parents didn't condone or encourage that behaviour, but his family were without means and that had a detrimental effect on how much of a perfect citizen Tony was able to be as a young man.
He said: "There were days where we were going hungry. So basically that was it, that was my childhood really. It was a very tough upbringing and there were times when you didn't know where the next meal was coming from in the house. It was a good upbringing because of my parents but it was a tough upbringing all the same. There were days where we were going hungry."
The life he was leading reached a boiling point when Tony was past his teens. It was a culmination of self-reflection, and Lindsey, his new girlfriend at the time, with whom he now shares two kids, Jess and Anthony. He said: "There comes a point in your life when you think I just can't do this anymore, this is not me. I'm going to prove myself different.
"I ended up getting in a relationship and I was trying to impress and impress. It was the kind of relationship where she wasn't impressed by someone who's selling drugs or someone who's robbing cars or being a criminal - she was more impressed if I was going to get a job and try to be respectable."
When asked if he thought he owed where he is in life now to Lindsay, he said: "Yes, one hundred percent."
He's now a business owner and a man recognised by his community for his work through the pandemic, turning his coffee shop into a foodbank. But he didn't plan for it to turn out this way, rather he let his rough experiences, and the advice of a charitable local business owner guide him.
Tony said: "It's well documented what I did throughout the pandemic, turning the cafe into a food bank, but I didn't do it for the recognition, I did it because I know what it's like to be struggling and hungry. I can remember a guy who used to own a pub by where I grew up. It was called the Bankhouse.
"The way he would run his pub is by investing back into the community. He would say that the community we lived in, we had each other [even if] we didn't have a lot. In the pub he used to put on firework displays, Christmas parties, Halloween parties, all free and people respected him because of that and I felt that was the way I wanted to go with my business. So I started investing back into the community."
Tony's most recent exploit is his new coffee shop on the waterfront. The opportunity was presented to him by Local Solutions, a major charity in Merseyside that works to help communities.
The cafe will be run by Tony and some of his regular team members, though will also be staffed by disadvantaged young people who grew up in similar circumstances to him. He said: "We'll be working with kids who have had a tough start in life and who just need that one little break.
"We can give them experience, we can create a CV for them. You know you can't get experience without a job, and you can't get a job without experience.
"A lot of youngsters are struggling and the older you get when you've got no experience, employers look at that and think what have you been doing? So it's giving youngsters a platform to get started and give them a foot on a ladder really to get moving with a better life.
"I know what it's like. I don't want to see anyone struggling and I'm always trying to help people in anyway I can.
"I know just what it's like to be struggling, to be in trouble with the police. I know what it's like to think there's no way out of it and that you're just basically going to be a failure at life and if i can give someone the platform to move forward then I'm going to do it."
