Ex-boxer tells how his health and wellbeing business has learned lessons from the fruit market

A Commonwealth champion whose final fight was in the most famous boxing arena of them all made his theatrical bow as he shared his life story with a Humber Business Week audience.

Tommy Coyle will make his second stage performance later this year when he appears as a pantomime villain at Bridlington Spa.

Rehearsals for that will be squeezed into a packed schedule which will include running his own gyms, delivering health and wellbeing services to blue-chip employers and supporting communities in his home city of Hull.

At one point it looked as though boxing might also be back on the agenda. Tommy hinted that tentative discussions about going back in the ring with Luke Campbell had been knocked out by the Hull and East Yorkshire Mayor’s political ambitions.

“I’m staying retired,” he emphasised.

Tommy told his story so far with prompts from Paul Sewell, founder of Humber Business Week, chair of Sewell Group and Hull Kingston Rovers and a long term friend and mentor.

They took the audience in the Godber Studio at Hull Truck Theatre through Tommy’s tough upbringing, early earners  in the family fruit and veg business and then life after boxing.

Interspersed with that is the commitment to the community including classes on a double decker bus fitted out to offer boxing and academic tuition, an impromptu gym set up to engage with young men after a fatal stabbing in the city, and an ongoing campaign to provide free school uniforms to hard-pressed families.

Paul introduced Tommy as a “born performer, sporting gladiator, great communicator with infectious energy, philanthropist and community hero.”

Tommy told of pivotal moments in his childhood which fuelled his determination. After Tommy took a beating from another boy, his father set up a rematch which brought another hiding.

Tommy said: “I got filled in again but the moral of the story is you keep going until you win. Working in the family fruit business I got used to getting up early. My dad told me the only thing you get from staying in bed is bed sores. You have to get up and get after it.”

He was followed into sport by two brothers, Lewie and Rocco, who play for Hull City, and Joe, who is a professional golfer. One of his own career highlights came when he won the Commonwealth lightweight title in 2018. Another the following year was his final fight, which ended in defeat but took the kid from Hull to the iconic Madison Square Garden.

He said: “I knew I would need something to fall back on after boxing because my education was terrible. John Buttrick at Hull Children’s University gave me the money to buy boxing gloves and I set up Boxfit classes.”

From there he moved into running gyms, and Paul told how Tommy’s talent for communications resulted in media crews descending on the facility which was set up next to Sewell Group’s head office in Hull.

The big breakthrough came when Tommy was asked to design a health and wellbeing programme for the workforce at Siemens Gamesa in Hull.

He said: “I told them I could do it but at the same time I knew I didn’t understand the business so I told them I would work for them for 12 months to find out about it. I found it was very skilled and very physical, and hydration was really important. We redesigned the menu in their staff restaurant as part of creating a bespoke programme around a holistic approach – eating well, moving well and sleeping well.”

Paul noted that the development of Coyle Health and Wellbeing came from Tommy displaying classic entrepreneurial traits.

He said: “You are the purest entrepreneur I have ever met – entrepreneurs play quick, take risks, and it came from growing up in the pure business environment of a fruit stall.”

Tommy said: “It’s important to stick to what you are good at, stay in your lane. There are a lot of things I’m not good at but I am good at communicating, buying and selling. It’s about being there first – you have to get to the market first, buy well and sell fair. Give your customers a fair deal.

“Those early days on the market stall were a huge part of my career.”