"My first thoughts were that there were big margins in this business, but very low volumes, and the volumes would go up and the margins would come down. Vera star Brenda Blethyn's private home she lives in for half the year, Pregnant Rihanna's family home with rarely seen son under threat, Joanna Gaines' latest home video sparks fan questions, The Repair Shop's Angelina Bakalarou's home is an oasis of calm, Gwen Stefani shares intimate beach video with Blake Shelton from secluded 1,300-acre ranch, Stacey Solomon's major overhaul at Pickle Cottage weeks after giving birth. The next year he was taken on by the Michelin Tyre Company as an apprentice engineer, and he stayed 10 years, until 1980, though that didn't stop the hyperactive Mr Caudwell from setting up three businesses on the side. Get involved in exciting, inspiring conversations with other readers. There is even a 500,000 car stacking device that can take eight cars from street level to storage at the press of a button., plus an indoor pool with a volcanic lava installation. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Sign up to our newsletter. Its been 16 years, but the UK economy finally has a chance, How to boost your pension pot by over 100,000, The best one-year fixed savings accounts - April 2023, MoneyWeek is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Now, the Stoke on Trent-born billionaire in the subject of a new documentary for Channel 4, Expensive Home: Building For A Billionaire, which takes a look at his incredible 250million Mayfair home as it undergoes a 65million refurbishment. A burst pipe just six weeks before John intends to move in almost derails the entire renovation, and self-described micro-manager John is unimpressed with the progress he sees on his frequent visits. The 250million property boasts eight floors, 15 bedrooms, and a 120-capacity ballroom, which is rumoured to be the largest privately-owned hall in the capital. This account already exists. Known as Mayfair house, Caudwells roughly 43,000 sq. Meanwhile, "we're told the cuts mean Lewisham officers now have to take buses to crime scenes because there's a shortage of pool cars. It is all a far cry from John's humble beginnings growing up in Wellesley Street in Shelton. You can opt-out at any time by signing in to your account to manage your preferences. The majestic ballroom was simply polished up with hardwood floors and new curtains to retain its authentic style. John, aged 68, said: "It was incredibly ostentatious but it had some phenomenal features so I bought it. A Chinese owner, who paid 40 million for a plot in Avenue Road two years ago, is building an even bigger 30,000 sq ft house that could be worth close to 100 million when it is finished. The single window has a view over a car park and wasteland near a busy roundabout. "I'm probably lucky, because I inherently know how business should be. Best Car Lifts for Home Garages in 2022. View our online Press Pack. But despite the drastic revamp, he left his beloved ballroom mostly untouched. John joked: "Who else has a room like this? Unlike its muted exterior, which mostly blends into its surroundings, nothing about the homes interior is understated. He and some friends cycled from Stoke, down the length of Wales, to Oxford and back to Stoke, a distance of 440 miles along winding hill roads in three days. Which equates to three underfloor garage frames. Contact us to discuss the range of architectural services we can provide. Nor do the cuts seem to be biting everywhere. He plans to demolish the MSMR successfully secured planning consent for the sensitive redevelopment of two adjoining listed buildings located in the Mayfair Conservation Area. Billionaires have billions of pounds, and theyre entitled to spend them however they wish. Iconic discount shop to shut its doors next month - is your local affected? As the documentary makers, builders and site managers pack up, John is preparing for the 30 or so close friends arriving that evening to celebrate his birthday. Britains Most Expensive Home: Building For a Billionaire, a one-off documentary on Channel 4, followed the highs and lows of his renovation journey. But one of John's favourite features of the house is the car stacker lift, which is visible from within the house through strong glass, keeping his vintage motors on It took eight months to sell all 26 phones to plumbers, taxi drivers and television repairmen at a price of 2,000 each. WebAdvantage Lifts is your online home for the most reliable, high-quality residential and commercial auto lifts for sale. Inside the St John's Wood mega mansion and other super-glam homes, Jaw dropping: the crystal chandelier in the grand hall, Vast: a formaldrawing and dining room has French doors leading to gardens and a sunken courtyard, You must be at least 18 years old to create an account, Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number, I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from Evening Standard. John Caudwell's 250 million mega-mansion in London's Mayfair boasts massive gold-adorned rooms he jokes only Buckingham Palace can rival. From here, guests can see the vintage and luxury cars John chooses to display in his car stacker storage. A bacterial infection passed on by a tick bite, Lyme disease affects some 2,000 people a year in Britain. Includes access to the digital magazine. This would be a tiring journey by car, I say. He is a man with huge wealth, but one who still counts the pennies, the boy from Stoke who has set his heart on a home in the old money world of Mayfair. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. I believe in sink or swim, and if one of my companies can't survive on its own, then another company shouldn't prop it up, especially at the expense of my own customers.". 2021 Associated Newspapers Limited. Overall 20,000 sheets of gold leaf are used in the home, at a cost of 28,000. Even his girlfriend has left him for someone more normal. On the inside I felt the same especially about the staff. "I would knock on those doors until I'd been to every door in the neighbourhood. Where is Heidi Klum's model daughter Leni living instead of $9.8m Bel-Air family mansion? Interiors were designed by Athens and London-based Sissy Feida and include a 13-metre crystal floor-to-ceiling hanging chandelier in the grand hall. He used 20,000 sheets of gold leaf throughout the property's opulent interiors. Hydraulic car lift. "All of a sudden, the phone manager left and the key car salesmen found other jobs, so I had to restructure the business," he says. So it was better to buy from me at an increased price than to not have them at all and not have any sales. The second was a grocery shop, run by him and his wife, which rapidly taught him returns didn't necessarily increase with the amount of work you put in. He is also a speed freak. But the mobile phone tycoon couldn't resist adding his own personal touch. "With a saturated market it's all about value and customer loyalty, and this way I'll gain loyalty for the other businesses. "The value in my house is the house itself, but I dont keep any valuables. The ballroom is said to be the largest private ballroom in London after Buckingham Palace. The documentary, which will air on Wednesday 5 February at 9pm, takes a look at the major challenges that comes with such a massive project. This account already exists. 20:20 Logistics is already Europe's largest handset distributor, with operations in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Denmark and Norway. Yet his initial masterplan for life took a long time to start working. But if youre going to make before-and-after property porn, dont try and claim its all forcharity. I was involved in absolutely every aspect of it., But how does the proud philanthropist justify spending such an ostentatious amount of money on a home? Why Ed Sheeran is both right and wrong to say most pop songs fit over most other pop songs, Joel Dommett: 'Sienna Miller led me through our sex scene. John - who recently had a child with Olympic cyclist Modesta Vzesniauskaite - also owns the 12 million Jacobean manor house Broughton Hall, near Eccleshall, and has a property in Monaco. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Although Alta Vista's much-trumpeted announcement that it was doing the same came a few days before, Mr Caudwell's company had run trials last year, and launched its service when the American company was still planning its free launch. which can summon any of owner John Caudwell's impressive car collection at the touch of a button. Five crystal chandeliers stretch up over four floors to transform the staircases. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. Who else has a room like this? "So I managed to talk some big retailers into buying the product from me, on the basis that most of the profit in those days was in selling the airtime, not how much you managed to buy the phone for. John's impressive refurbishment is also for the sake of his charity, Caudwell Children. He has been married once and has five children from three different relationships. It looked good, by the end. The ground floor of the Dragoumanos property has a vast formal drawing and dining room with French doors leading to gardens and a sunken courtyard. The "car stacker" is John's favourite toy, as it can take eight cars from street level to storage at the press of a button. Now fixed, the lava appears to be moving above the swimming pool. "The secret is to cut the margins down, add value the customer can really see, run it in a very efficient way and let the customer loyalty be the most important thing of all. Billionaire businessman John Caudwell bought Audley Street garage and the surrounding buildings in Mayfair for around 155 million in 2011. After initial promise in the entrepreneur's club, the young Caudwell became somewhat bogged down. "Last weekend was pretty tiring," he says. It's just an instinct, I know that's the way to do it.". ", I have less sympathy for Markus Persson, the 36-year-old Swedish inventor of the staggeringly popular video game, Minecraft. The renovation ran over time and 55 million over budget and the the results will be seen once again on Channel 4's Britain's Most Expensive Home: Building for a I told them: 'I've got some really good products here, I'm selling them for charity, it's for the blind, but forget that because they're made from sandalwood, really good products at a really good price'. The manor of Broughton was owned by the eponymous Broughton family from the 13th century. John Caudwell made his money as the founder of Phones4U and owns a lavish set of mansions in Mayfair (Image: (C) 2021 DAVID ENGLISH). Total staff numbers have now reached 1,800. Avenue Road has become a new billionaires row in recent years, attracting buyers and investors from around the world. The Mobile Phone Repair Company (MPRC) is in four countries, and Dextra, the accessories company, is following suit. John described the room as a triple threat - "very atmospheric, very comfortable and very luxurious". I was only looking for a little pad in London! I saw all the adults would come back to the minibus and nobody would have sold anything. A 17-seater cinema is a real showstopper, with the seats synchronised to lower at the same time if required. He will use his Mayfair home when he needs to be in London, but he has created zones within the house that can be used for his charitable foundation, Caudwell Children, which supports disabled children and their families. His pre-tax profits last year in this low margin business came in at 14.3m. Expert and Professional Commercial and Residential Car Lift Installation for Commercial & Residential. The smooth charm of some self-made men is not evident, but there is a determined passion about the things that fire him up. "When I do the first charity party, maybe with 80 or 90 people in that ballroom, and we raise a load of money for Caudwell Children, I will enjoy that more than anything else I could ever do in my life," says owner John. Just last weekend the police managed to find 7,000 officers to patrol the Notting Hill carnival at a cost of 7m. Caudwell has good reason to feel this way. Rufus, a 20-year-old musician the youngest of his three children with his first wife was finally, after years of problems, diagnosed with Lyme disease in February. Celebrity neighbours have included heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua, who rented but has now moved out, while nearby residents have included singers Rihanna and Robbie Williams, as well as acting stars Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory. The first floor has three bedroom suites, including a master bedroom with walk-in dressing room, and two separate marble bathrooms. He purchased the property for 87million, but it is estimated to be worth over twice the amount after the new renovations have been completed. Subscribe to RR1 Live+ for exclusive virtual events all year long (at least 1 per month), conversations with Robb Report editors, special perks, and more. Each email has a link to unsubscribe. As well as his Mayfair pad, Mr Caudwell also owns the 50-room 12 million Jacobean Broughton Hall in Eccleshall which was burgled in 2010 with the raiders Obstacles in his path included an incorrectly installed lava wall and a 500,000 underground car park frame, which was the wrong size by 10mm. TAKE a look inside John Caudwell's extravagant mansion that's Britain's most expensive home. The construction project reportedly employed 300 workers and is the subject of the new Channel 4 documentary, Britains Most Expensive Home: Building For a Billionaire. And its a far cry from the council estate (the U.K. version of a housing project) in which Caudwell grew up. Niall Keating, chef director at Lunar Restaurant, has taken inspiration from the classic bacon and cheese filling. * Residential & commercial car lift installation services In 2003 he sold Singlepoint to Vodafone for 405m and completed the sale of the wider business three years later for 1.46 billion to private equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Doughty Hanson. Try it outhere. The first was mail-order, selling motorcyle clothing from home. newly built 10-bedroom mansion in St Johns Wood has become the most expensive home to go on the London market this year, with a price tag of 75 million. He sometimes registers a "one or two" on the happiness scale when he "should be a nine" out of ten, he tells The Daily Telegraph's Peter Stanford. His family was brought up in poverty in a terraced house in Stoke. A stuffy old bloke wearing pin-striped trousers looked me up and down as though I had something rather unpleasant on my shoes. "And they went for it," he says, with some relish. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. He said: I would describe them as leisurely.' I bought the cheapest Amstrad computer there was, had a girl sitting next to me loading the names of all the phone dealers in the country and started prospecting them on the phone and started selling them wholesale phones.". He readily admits he was desperate to find a business idea that would make him rich, but without a commercial family background, in a depressed area where the traditional pottery firms were closing, it was hard for the teenage prodigy to find a viable proposition. His first success came when he was 10, when he started selling soap products for the blind, door to door. Apparently The Reform does not allow trainer footwear". account. There are stunning embroidered chairs to relax in while enjoying a film - perfectly situated in close proximity to the popcorn machine. ]. So we've got to give them fixed wire propositions, mobile phone propositions, pay-TV propositions, internet propositions, so they get a complete package from us for all they need, and we'll send them one bill, which makes them happier and cuts our administration costs. "We want to be number one in anything we do." Like this article? Billionaire businessman John Caudwell has given TV viewers a glimpse inside his very own yacht for a new documentary. "A big increase from the 10[million] I originally conceived, somewhat naively," he adds. Well, other than Buckingham Palace, of course. Last year, the most expensive detached home on the market was a secluded Hollywood-style mansion near Hampstead Heath, which was listed for 40 million. Designers Adam Architecture were briefed to come up with a traditionally British house that might be mistaken for having been there 200 years. Man, 20, in critical condition after assault in Beckenham, UK running extra evacuation flight to rescue Britons from Sudan, Islamic State leader killed in Syria, says Turkey, The Kings Coronation Concert to feature a Union Flag-shaped stage, Warning of exceptionally low staffing levels as nurses strike, MasterChef Australia judge Jock Zonfrillo dies aged 46, a secluded Hollywood-style mansion near Hampstead Heath, County lines mum ran selfish sons drugs ring while he was in jail, Coronation allegiance oath in support of King tone deaf, Couple ordered to tear down 80,000 extension in fight with neighbours, Mum says son was too embarrassed to leave killer girlfriend. * Connect with the best local, qualified and experienced professional near you Earlier this month, he raised raised 150,000 for children's charities by cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End in nine days. Money can't buy happiness for John Caudwell. It makes for a fascinating character portrayal. A birthday dinner Caudwell wanted to hold. "I was looking for anything I deemed 'good value', regardless of size or price," says John during the programme. From 10, Mr Caudwell says he had one aim. But it wasn't something on my shoes it was my shoes he found unpleasant. John has covered the walls with photos of his family members recreating snaps of Hollywood royalty in iconic poses, including the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. There is also a divine games room, which John describes as "great for entertaining in" that helps make the house "super special.". He pointed at them and said: What are these?' It was a matter of lateral thinking and analysing the situation, and that's what business is about - it's about analysing the things that you do and next time doing it better, faster and more profitably.". PHONES4U billionaire John Caudwell has shown off Britains most expensive home worth 250million after he merged two mansions together. One of the reasons for Mr Caudwell's relative obscurity in the millionaires' club may be that Phones 4U, the group's most public face, is a relatively small retailer, with around 130 shops. "The site was just unbelievable," the dad-of-six said. This was really the crucial moment, in 1988, when Mr Caudwell finally found his calling. Other features you might not expect to find in this historic London enclave include a Thai-themed dining room John's favourite food with a river flowing through its centre filled with handpicked African Cichlid fish, all set beneath a preserved 15-foot cherry tree adorned with pink silk blossom. READ:Julie Neville shares an exclusive access-all-areas tour of her incredible family home, Speaking about the new series, executive producer Dan Barraclough said: "This incredible access gives us a glimpse into the world of the truly mega wealthy, where every whim can be realised, but where things can still go wrong, as on any building site. Is it just a coincidence that these absurd stories come at a time when ministers are drawing up plans for more budget cuts?" Earn nearly 5% on one-year fixed savings accounts. Then, one day in 1987, Mr Caudwell, then 34, went to an electronics shop to buy a mobile phone for his business. The Brummy-billionaire told OK Magazine he stripped the majority of the mansion back to basics, as he found the decor was "ostentatious". They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services. Oh, and the house? The privately-held Caudwell Group, in which he has a majority stake, owns a mobile phone empire including the country's biggest mobile phone distribution network, repair service, accessories distributor and independent airtime provider. He wasnt hugely interested in living in it, though, intending to mainly hold meetings and charity balls at the townhouse mansion once work on it was completed. The documentary will take a look at the unique engineering tasks and challenges to create a subterranean basement that joins two mansions together, a mechanical car stacker that can take eight cars from street level to storage with ease, a pool with a bespoke installation designed to look like lava and even a dining room featuring a real river - complete with live fish. Having sold his firm to Microsoft last year for $2.5bn he now feels trapped, reports the Daily Mail, "in a world every bit as isolated and purposeless as the digital one he invented". In a few years this would grow into MPRC, the UK's biggest such enterprise. "I opened a shop so we could retail them, did accessories, and basically, every opportunity within the mobile phone business we took.". Julie Neville shares an exclusive access-all-areas tour of her incredible family home, Gogglebox stars Mary and Giles share shocking revelation about Wiltshire home amid relocation reports. Sign up for exclusive newsletters, comment on stories, enter competitions and attend events. Eventually, I'll find ways of making money as well, through value-added propositions on the website.". Each email has a link to unsubscribe. Sign up for exclusive newsletters, comment on stories, enter competitions and attend events. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. Please fill out the form, and tell us about your car lift installation project in detail, and we will pair you with a Arizona professional, so you will you get all the details needed about the next steps, costs involved, a quote and timeline for completion. ", So how did he succeed where the others failed? Whatissurprising, though, is that the owner of the $300 million-plus property is John Caudwell, an Englishman with working-class roots who made his fortune through the mobile phone company Phones 4U, which he sold for 1.5 billion in 2006. He is rolling this out across Europe this year and he is convinced it will become the premier system of its kind worldwide, helping to double the group's turnover within two years. "Yes, that'd be right," he replies with a smile. CL.
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