selling materials off site. I would much rather transport them away, sort and process them thoroughly and get a better price for them,” he says.


This philosophy is evidenced at the yard – a veritable builders’ merchant for the green generation - to the rear of the demolition head office which holds everything from reclaimed bricks and blocks, timber, architectural ironwork and even garage doors. And this “nothing is thrown away” mentality is clearly in evidence at the transfer station as well. “If we take in 1,000 tonnes, we sell 1,000 tonnes,” he says proudly. “Whether it’s scrap metal, topsoil, railway ballast or 6F2, we will find a use – and a customer – for everything that comes into our yard.”


Old School


John Mould enjoys the trappings that a lifetime’s hard work has brought. In addition to the cars and clothes, he has a home in New Zealand and – during our meeting – was winding down for a trip to another home in South Africa. “When you have eaten in a really good restaurant, you don’t really want to


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go back to the greasy spoon,” he says philosophically.


But Mould is a man who works solely in tangibles. He says he has no truck with bonds, stocks and shares and would prefer to put his money into things he can touch such as his equipment, his car collection, and his international property portfolio.


Easy for him to say, perhaps. After all, he sold his business to Hanson at the turn of the millennium only to buy it back a few years later at a fraction of the cost, netting a sizeable nest egg for himself, his wife and his children Jodie and Jay who both work in the business today. But although his taste in modern cars – Aston Martins and Bentley Continentals – strays dangerously close to Premiership footballer territory, John Mould is no nouveau riche. He has built his business the old way, the right way; based on trust. Loyalty and graft. And regardless of your personal feelings on public displays of affluence, when you see John Mould behind the wheel of his beloved Rolls Royce Phantom, you can’t help but think he’s earned it.


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