18 entrepreneurs Simply a success


There’s no doubt that when entrepreneur James Capel puts his mind to something, he’s determined to do it. Having grown up in the hospitality industry, customer service excellence runs through his veins and he attributes his keenness to put customer service at the top of the agenda as one of the reasons for his success. In little more than seven years, he has turned the company he launched in 2005 into a multi-million turnover business and, in the past 18 months, has embarked on a punishing fitness campaign which has seen him lose an astonishing six stone in weight and join the fast-growing band of triathlon fans. Alison Dewar found out what makes him tick


Although born in Oxford, Capel spent most of his childhood and teenage years living in Yorkshire, where his parents ran a large and successful pub between Leeds and York. A popular venue for weddings and functions, especially for the racing fraternity, Capel began working split shifts in the kitchen at just 13. It was, he says, hard graft and unsocial hours and the fact the pub was run by his parents meant he worked even harder to keep customers satisfied.


A family move saw him return to the Thames Valley and, while studying for his A Levels, a chance opportunity to earn some pocket money for the summer as a loader at a local waste management company, unwittingly set him on his future career. Having studied English, History and Law at Amersham and Wycombe College, he returned to the waste business post-graduation as a traffic controller.


From there, he rose up the ranks until, in 2005, together with two colleagues, he spotted an opportunity to do things differently and launched Simply Waste Solutions. Today the business, based in Langley near Slough, has a turnover of some £13 million and employs around 65 people. It handles over 20,000 waste collections every month nationwide, facilitating the processing of over 50,000 tonnes of waste and recycling material every year, and has clients throughout the whole of the UK.


leap of faith then, before we had children, then it wouldn’t happen.


There were originally three of us that set up the business, although I’m now the sole owner, and we each put in £3,000 to start the company. Armed with a business plan, we went to Bank of Scotland and asked for a loan to buy two second-hand trucks, which we purchased for £40,000. From there we were able to generate enough cashflow to invest back into the business and, with the help of asset finance, we’ve always supported ourselves from that point on.


You really did start at the bottom of the waste business and work your way up, what was your driving force?


There were a number of factors. Having grown up in a business owned by my parents, the entrepreneur in me wanted to run my own company. I had a very strong work ethic instilled in me from an early age and wasn’t afraid of hard work.


Being involved in waste management, at the time I felt that customer service wasn’t necessarily at the forefront of the industry, it wasn’t executed very well and there was room for improvement. I wanted to build long-term relationships with customers, to nurture their business and put a real emphasis on service, I felt I could make a difference.


How did you get started?


I had a small mortgage and, at the time, there was just my partner Natalie – now my wife – and myself. I knew that if we didn’t take that


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Now of course, we can afford to buy new trucks and last year invested over a £1 million in a new fleet of vehicles, with a number more already ordered for this year.


What was your first success?


We were fortunate in that we worked with Greenstar, a waste broker which handled big contracts and they were good at putting customers our way. At the time, the west and central areas of London weren’t particularly well served by local private waste contractors and, as that was who the brokers preferred to work with, we were in prime position. As time went on, we began to gain our own clients too and the business started to grow.


Was there a particular contract or client which made a big difference?


Winning Waitrose and John Lewis was a real step change for us. Just over a year after we started the business, Waitrose contacted us after finding us on the Internet. They were


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – OCTOBER 2013


disappointed with the level of service they had from their original waste contractor and wanted to know if we could help. They gave us the opportunity of a trial, managing waste over the Christmas period for their stores in London. When we completed that contract successfully and proved we could do the job, they extended the programme.


Now we are the sole waste contractor for both Waitrose and John Lewis throughout the UK, which is pretty impressive, not least because they are one of the most reputable retailers in the UK and, as far as we are concerned, they are a fantastic company to do business with.


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