TEWKESBURY Business
Student pair combining studies with sushi bar
6:00pm Monday 23rd January 2012
THERE can’t be many students at the University of Worcester who combine their studies with running their own business, but then Kristijonas Gedvilas and Kornelija Guzaite are not your average undergraduates.
The couple from Siauliai in Lithuania have set up a sushi bar called Double Sushi in The Cornmarket in the building previously occupied by Actons Chemists.
Very switched on and business-orientated, they both have families back home who run a variety of successful companies and have been encouraged by their parents to find work from an early age.
“I started in a car wash when I was 13,” said 20-year-old Mr Gedvilas.
“We have both had a wide range of jobs, from working in agricultural fields to McDonald’s.”
One summer vacation they both had jobs as assistants at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Mr Gedvilas was president of his high school council two years in a row, while Miss Guzaite, who is 19, was also a local beauty queen.
They arrived at the University of Worcester in the summer of 2010 on three-year courses – “because we wanted to widen our experience and England has a more international outlook than Lithuania,” said Mr Gedvilas – and soon set their mark on opening their own business.
Although neither has a food or catering background, they identified the lack of a sushi bar in the city as a potential target. Mr Gedvilas said: “We both like sushi but we found the nearest bar for fresh, home-made sushi was in Birmingham.
“So we decided this would be a good idea for a business in Worcester.”
With typical thoroughness, they spent months learning the trade from top chefs in Birmingham and have the services of a professional sushi chef readily available.
“One of the misconceptions about sushi is that it’s all about raw fish,” Mr Gedvilas said. “It’s not. Sushi is really food served in a roll with rice.
“You can have chicken, cream cheese, avocado, vegetarian. Almost anything.
“Of course, salmon, tuna, shrimp and crab are still favourites.
“We aim to serve the best-quality sushi using the best-quality ingredients freshly made on the premises. It is not like you would buy in supermarkets.”
The bar with its smart, contemporary interior, has tables if customers want to eat in.
If successful, it could be the first of several for the pair, who still make their way across Worcester, and even up to Birmingham, on a student scooter.
“I would really like a BMW,” said Mr Gedvilas. Don’t bet against it.