My rubbish idea turns over £23.6m a year
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Had the internet been around in 1986, Jonathan Straight could well have made a fortune sticking with his first business venture – selling books by post. “Who would have thought there was a future in that?” sighs the 43-year-old Leeds native.
But while he might have missed out on the tech boom, the sales and marketing man was ahead of the crowd on another trend – recycling. “I read in a book that ‘we pay to put our waste in holes in the ground’,” he says. “The material we bury has a value, so we pay for it twice. That was my eureka moment. I knew if I could solve this problem, even in a small way, I’d make a good bit of money in the process.”
Straight immediately went on to work for an environmental consultancy in the Midlands, for free. “It was a reasonable gamble because at least I would learn a little bit about the fledgling recycling industry.” He then wasted no time getting in touch with container manufacturers on the continent, who made everything from kerbside recycling boxes to recycling banks for engine oil. Impressed by his earlier experience in direct marketing, they agreed to let him sell their products in the UK, which he began doing in 1993.
Based in Leeds city centre, in an office “so small that the rent for my car parking space was higher”, Straight began targeting his products at local authorities, waste management companies and voluntary sector groups. Using newsletters featuring caricatures of himself – “my rather diminutive wax moustache became a huge one, which went from one side of the page to the other” – was part of a carefully thought-out strategy. “It’s always been one of my guiding principles to be a bit different, because people will remember you.”
Business boomed and by 2000 he was turning over £2m a year. But there was a problem looming; a lot of the products Straight sold belonged to other firms, many of which were being bought out by bigger rivals, who would sooner or later ban them from using their moulds. Yet setting up a business based entirely on his own products would require a big investment. Straight headed to London to seek advice on a flotation. “We met a whole raft of brokers who were offering a float on Ofex. And they wanted to charge us £200,000 for the privilege.”
Concerned about the lack of liquidity on the junior index, Straight went for Aim instead, and in November 2003, Straight plc went public. “I remember watching the £1.25m net funds dropping into the bank and thinking that was the easy bit – now we’ve got to deliver.”
Despite his trepidation, it turned out to be a wise move, allowing Straight to absorb the less well-funded Blackwall in 2005, a company that made rain butts and home compost bins. “That was the transforming deal for the business because it gave us a commanding lead over rivals.” Turnover and profits shot up – by last year, sales came in at more than £23.6m. So he doesn’t regret giving up the book business – although he still has the occasional daydream about building his very own Amazon.com. “Had the internet been there, things could have been very different.”
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