John David Caudwell (born 7 October 1952) is an English businessman, philanthropist and co-founder of mobile phone retailer Phones 4u. He also invests in fashion, real estate and other industries, and chairs Caudwell Children, a charity which benefits ill or disabled children and their families. He is also known for being the UK’s biggest taxpayer. On the Forbes 2016 list of the world’s billionaires, he was ranked #722 with a net worth of US$2.4 billion.
Early life
Caudwell was born in Birmingham but moved with his family as a baby to Stoke-on-Trent and raised in Wellesley Street in Shelton, and with his brother Brian attended Shelton Church of England School, and then Berry Hill High School. His father had a stroke when he was 14 and died 4 years later. His mother lives in the Midlands.
Caudwell abandoned his A-levels to become an apprentice at Michelin, and worked for several years there as an engineering foreman while gaining an HNC in mechanical engineering. Whilst working at Michelin he also ran a corner shop and started a mail order business selling clothing to motor bikers, both of which were successful, his motorcycle clothing business so much so that the manufacturer for a period refused to sell him stock because he was outperforming established retailers.
Caudwell Group
In 1986, whilst still trading motorcars, Caudwell became aware of the first of the then new mobile phones, and discovered that there were large profit margins possible, so contacted the American handset maker Motorola to see if he could do a deal.
With his brother Brian, in 1987 Caudwell registered Midland Mobile Phones as a mobile phone wholesaler, taking 26 Motorola mobiles at £1,350 each. It took 8 months to sell these 26 phones to local plumbers, taxi drivers and television repairmen at a price of £2,000 each. The company made a loss every month for the first two years of operations.
Developing from a small dealership to a wholesale distributor, however, turnover expanded to £13 million in 1991, making it the UK’s largest independent distributor of mobile phones. Turnover increased from £13 million in 1991 to over £1 billion in 2000. In 1996 and 1997, the Caudwell Group was named the UK’s fastest-growing company for two years in succession.
His aggressive expansion with Phones4U into the retail space created a professional rivalry with Charles Dunstone who built that other UK mobile dynasty, Carphone Warehouse. Whereas Dunstone’s success was forged in the retail side of mobile, the Caudwell empire was built on the success of wholesaling with 20:20 Distribution – which became one of the largest handset distributors in Europe – and Singlepoint, an airtime reseller for Vodafone. The dominance of 20:20 in the fast-growing UK mobile market paved the way for aggressive expansion into retail and accessories, with the development of Phones4u and Dextra.
By 2003, the Caudwell Group employed over 8,000 people worldwide and was selling 26 phones every minute.
A bull market player by nature, Caudwell could see the end of the growth days looming. He sold Singlepoint to Vodafone, for £405m (then $648m). Caudwell completed the sale of the wider business on 26 September 2006, when it was revealed that the Caudwell Group had been sold for a £1.46 billion to private equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Doughty Hanson.
English businessman and philanthropist John Caudwell has an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion as of April 2016 according to Forbes. He is also the 18th richest person in the United Kingdom and is ranked 554th in the list of World Billionaires. John David Caudwell, born on October 7, 1952 in Birmingham, United Kingdom, has earned his estimated net worth of $2.4 billion in the mobile phone business. His business career began when he became an apprentice at Michelin. For several years, he has also worked as an engineering foreman while gaining an HNC in mechanical engineering. In 1987, be started as a mobile phone seller along with his brother, Brian. He has bought 26 mobile devices from the United States and sold then for thousands each to British plumbers and businessmen. In 1993, the Caudwell brothers founded the mobile service provider Singlepoint while taking on 1.9 million contract customers. In 2003, they sold the company to Vodafone for $650 million. John used the proceeds to grow his mobile handset wholesaler, Phones4U, into a retail and distribution giant. In 2006, he sold a majority stake in the company to Providence Equity Partners for $2.8 billion. The remaining 25% was sold in 2011 for $272 million.
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