James Murray Wells

JAMES MURRAY WELLS

James Murray Wells, founder of Glassesdirect.co.uk

Murray Wells’ new company Glasses Direct sold 22,000 pairs of glasses, and had an annual turnover of £1m. In 2009 Glasses Direct had 70 employees and sold a pair of glasses every three minutes.

Murray-Wells won the 2005 Shell LiveWIRE award for entrepreneurship, the 2005 Startup Award, the 2005 Wales and West Country Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2005 Natwest Business of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the 2006 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Young Entrepreneur Award.

As a result of his efforts to promote enterprise, in 2009 Murray Wells became the youngest person ever to receive the The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion.

Subsequently, Murray Wells is strapping himself in for another 100mph 12 months and expects turnover to triple to £3m, and reach £10m by 2008.

Murray Wells of lacking ambition. “He wants Glasses Direct to be the world’s largest direct seller of glasses in the next four years. It’s a £3bn market and I’m aiming for a ten per cent slice of the pie. I reckon we can be bigger than Specsavers.”

“We went looking around for anyone who looked like a football player on the Idaho campus.”

“We loved the yummy hips part.”

“It gets in your blood. If you’re doing it for the money, you’re going to go into the hole. We do it more for the sport.”