From Leicester to Las Vegas - Paul Rowlett shares his story of success
Added by Love Business East Midlands | 1 December 2019
UPDATED: 2 January 2020
What does it take to be a top entrepreneur? How do you overcome the odds to build a multinational, multimillion-pound turnover business from scratch? We talk to one of the region’s best-known young entrepreneurs about his journey from homeless ex-serviceman to millionaire businessman.
Paul Rowlett, Founder and Managing Director, Everything Branded.
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The journey to the top can be long, cold and lonely.
Paul Rowlett knows this more than most.
Just a decade ago, the ex-Royal Navy man was homeless, jobless and broke.
But an idea, a laptop and a £500 bank loan were all he needed to build a multimillion-pound ecommerce empire with roots in the East Midlands and offices around the world, including on the world-famous Strip, in Las Vegas.
As founder and managing director of Charles Alexander Distribution and its flagship online brand, Everything Branded, Paul has built a business which employs 130 people, has expanded to far flung corners of the world and is set to turnover £100m by 2022.
It supplies promotional products to clients including Samsung, Tetley, Bisto, Asda, Greggs, Lufthansa, AA, ITV, the NHS, and several universities and councils.
Paul’s career may have had more than its fair share of ups and downs, but his entrepreneurial skills have never been in doubt.
And its this entrepreneurial flair which saw him go undercover and back to school earlier this year in Channel Four’s The Secret Teacher, in which he got to offer one of the pupils he met at Haileybury Turnford School, in Cheshunt, Herts, a life-changing opportunity.
In the first episode of the new Love Business Podcast, Paul talks to host Richard Shakespeare about his incredible rags to riches journey and his hopes for the future.
