Who’s behind all these Green Doors?

Our company tackles a significant issue, with about one third of global waste coming from the construction industry. Our business is needed not only by customers but also by the planet.

Every year more than 10 billion doors are produced; unfortunately, some don’t even make it out of the factory because they were made to slightly incorrect specifications. Even though some are recycled or incinerated, there is nothing better than reusing what we have already produced.

The average lifespan of a door is surprisingly long: uPVC lasts around 25 years, aluminum around 50 years, and composite and timber over 30 years. Unfortunately, though, the majority of doors’ lives are cut short. So this is where Green Doors steps in.

At the age of 7, I was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD and struggled significantly at school.

I began my entrepreneurial journey early though. Aged 12, I saw a game of magnetic ‘sticks and balls’ in a toy shop. I wanted to build the biggest sculpture possible as they had advertised, but was discouraged by the high price tag for just the smallest box.

That evening I convinced my dad to let me use his eBay account. I found a seller who had a bulk of them at an incredibly cheap price. I wanted to purchase the lot with previous birthday money I had saved up, but my parents only allowed me to purchase half of them, which was 200 boxes. They arrived on a pallet so I had to offload them by hand, but I then sold them on eBay individually.

I ended up netting a profit of around £2,000 in just six weeks and from then on, I was hooked on buying and selling anything I could.

Over the years, I would go on to sell almost anything imaginable, from car parts to soaps, mobiles to decking.

Since my parents didn’t see selling on eBay as a viable career, I pursued plumbing through a £700-a-month apprenticeship. But, seeing the amount of reusable waste from boilers we removed, I decided to strip them down and was making £3,000 to £4,000 a month selling them on eBay.

In 2014, while working as a plumber, I was inspired to found Green Doors.

I was on a job one day when I noticed a set of modern uPVC french doors the customer was disposing of. He said I was more than welcome to have them and that he was building an extension and replacing them for bi-fold doors.  My plumbing mate and I dug them out, loaded them onto my van, cleaned them up, and advertised them on eBay that night. They sold the next day, netting me a profit of hundreds of pounds.

In the following weeks, I scoured skips and building sites to rescue more doors & windows, but it wasn’t until I visited a local door fabricator that I had my eureka moment. I saw a mountain of surplus items destined for landfill and thought this was what I was meant to do, set up a company selling all the pre-owned, mismeasured and ex-showroom doors and windows offering them to customers at a fraction of the original price.

I instantly packed up my plumbing career and founded the company Green Doors with a plan to disrupt this wasteful industry.

Friends and family thought I was delusional and urged me to stick with plumbing, but I knew I could make a difference.

After transforming my parents garden into a scrap yard, i rented out a single garage at the bottom of my road, but after moving the stock the garage was already full, so I rented a 3,500 sq ft barn unit in Luton to house the stock.

I found the first few years very tough, making a business from reselling doors and windows was harder than I expected.

Juggling collections, deliveries, logistics, cleaning, advertising, repairing, sales and paperwork caused endless stress and I was on the verge of giving up daily. No matter how many 16 hour days I did, it was never enough for the amount of work there was and although profitable still no one could see my vision.

The logistics, storage and having no systems in place proved to cause huge problems and to rectify these issues would cost millions.

To say it was a rollercoaster was an understatement; it felt like I was trying to build the theme park!

In 2015 I reached out to an old work colleague Aaron (our logistics manager today) who came on board as a delivery driver. He was first sceptical if there were enough deliveries/ collections for an entire week, but that was soon working 7 days a week as well!

With my mum noticing how much this was affecting my health, she left her job of 10 years to join the company and carry out the paperwork and admin side of things.

In 2017, Levi, my sister’s now fiancé, and a full-time developer, joined the business. He was working at a cool tech firm, but like me wanted to make an impact, so with a bit of convincing, I shared with him my vision and he joined the company. Levi comes from a business-minded family, so joining a startup felt natural to him.

Later, my sister Lauren, left her job in commercial property management in a fancy building in London and joined Green Doors to help us with the daily operations. My partner Elena, a Project Manager, came on board in 2023 to help grow the company.

In 2020, I met with a successful entrepreneur who gave me incredible advice on what to change and how to improve the business. So together with Levi, we built systems, a strong team, rented more warehouse space, and scaled up our operations.

For the last ten years, I’ve paid myself near minimum wage for the hours I’ve worked and we reinvest all profits back into the company to help scale up operations and rescue more stock.

We are on a mission to ensure all doors get a second life. We believe it makes sense both economically and environmentally.

Looking back, all my childhood I assumed I wouldn’t get anywhere due to my disabilities.

Now, I know these ‘superpowers’, as Sir Richard Branson would say, are what have got me to where I am today. They have given me the ability to see the bigger picture, think differently, and take risks.

If you, like me, my family and team, care about the planet or our story, consider being a customer, recommending us, or donating your items.

We all can make an impact.