From start-up to aim-listed plc - Jonathan Straight, Straight plc

Leeds Business Podcast

This week's guest is Jonathan Straight, founder and former-CEO of recycling solutions company Straight plc.

Jonathan tells us how the business came about, the journey to becoming a plc, the crisis caused by over-trading and then the eventual sale of the company. And he discuss the important question, 'what do you wear after selling your business?'

INTRODUCING JONATHAN STRAIGHT

Jonathan is an award-winning purposeful entrepreneur and creative best known for founding the AIM-listed Straight plc (STT), the UK’s leading supplier of waste and recycling containers. He headed the business for 21 years before exiting in 2014. He is currently a board advisor to Surplus Group Limited, tackling the problem of surplus and waste food, and is founder of The Lupin Company, marketing a vegan and gluten-free superfood.

Passionate about entrepreneurship, he is an enterprise ambassador at the Leeds University Business School, an entrepreneur in residence for Connect Yorkshire, and an associate director at Leeds Beckett University.

Jonathan chairs the international waste management charity, WasteAid, and is a director of the literary festival, Milim. He previously chaired food recyclers The Real Junk Food Project and was a main board trustee and chair of the commercial board at The Tetley contemporary art gallery. Jonathan is a mentor to - and investor in - various tech-for-good start-ups, where he holds non-executive posts.

Since 2022, Jonathan has been a member of the British Library Advisory Council and is helping to realise the ambition of a British Library of the North in Leeds.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

[00:01:00] Where the idea for the business came about

[00:12:30] The need for, and the start of, what became Straight plc

[00:17:30] The expansion of the business

[00:22:00] Raising capital for the business

[00:31:00] Life as a plc

[00:35:30] On the acquisition trail

[00:41:00] What could possibly go wrong…

[00:46:00] How to register a trademark (protect your IP)

[00:50:00] Selling the business

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS

• You can’t tell people anything that might move the share price

• Being a plc gives you clout and ammunition

• Stay close to your competitors; you may pick up useful information

• Make sure you protect your IP

• Look for NED roles while you are working, not after sale

3 BEST MOMENTS

“Can I sell these for you? And they said ‘no’ which seemed ludicrous to me”

“My image was very different to everyone else in the recycling bins industry”

“Suddenly a business I considered infinite had boundaries”

VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU

Website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/leeds-business-podcast/

Website: https://www.jonathanstraight.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/straight

Shout out tags: https://www.streetlanebakery.co.uk/

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ABOUT YOUR HOST

Phil Fraser went from an accidental kitchen table start up, with no investment, all the way to multi-million pound sale to a PLC 18 years later. He’s travelled the full SME business journey of launch, growth, scale and exit.

As well as hosting the Leeds Business Podcast, Phil now works with ambitious SME-owners as a Business Sounding Board (think somewhere between Business Coach and Business Mentor). In simple terms, he’s ‘a pair of ears and an extra pair eyes’ for SME Owners helping them to be better at what they do. Phil’s mantra is It doesn’t need to be ‘lonely at the top’. He helps Business Owners to be better business owners, by helping with their clarity and focus.

As a Business Sounding Board, he gives SME Owners the time & space to regularly discuss their challenges and opportunities, with no sense of judgement or bias, and in complete confidence. This allows them to explore their options in full, culminating with a list of issues to address/clarify, a clear target in mind, a roadmap to success, and a renewed enthusiasm and confidence for the challenges ahead.

Phil has appeared as a guest on over 60 podcasts, webinars and interviews, from around the whole globe, talking on a variety of business subjects. You can view them all at https://philfraser.co.uk/watch-hear-phil/.

LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST

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