Real Business

Summer 2011

Silverpreneurs

In 2000 Doug Stewart decided to sell the Volkswagen Audi dealership he’d been running for ten years. At the age of 44, he wasn’t ready to retire, so he sat down with a blank sheet of paper and worked out what to do next.

“I didn’t want a lot of inventory. I wanted to spend more time with my family. And, ideally, I wanted to make money in my sleep!” he says.

A chance conversation at a party about “photovoltaic physics” got him thinking about green energy. A year later, with a start-up fund of £50,000, his new company was born. Hertfordshire-based Green Energy UK offers homes and businesses such as Waitrose and Neal’s Yard Remedies “100 percent green electricity”, squeezed out of sources as unlikely as pig waste, vegetable oil and good old tomatoes.

Unusually, every customer is given free shares in the company and will ultimately receive dividends. The company turns over £10m and employs 16 people.

“I’m a ‘young’ 55-year-old”, says Stewart. “I’m not looking for an exit any time soon.”