Entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe on how he went from prison to multi-millionaire – and even tried to buy the Millennium Dome
At school, Simon Woodroffe’s exasperated chemistry teacher once declared “you’ll either be a millionaire or go to jail”. As it turned out, the founder of restaurant chain Yo! Sushi and one of the original investors on TV’s Dragons’ Den did both.
Now 74, the entrepreneur is still bubbling with ideas as he looks back on a life that took him from a privileged upbringing, attending elite Marlborough College, to leaving school with two O’levels, and becoming a music roadie. A rapid rise saw him become a stage designer for some of the biggest names in rock and pop, from Sir Paul McCartney and Ozzy Osbourne, as well as playing a part in Live Aid.
In an exclusive interview ahead of the release of his autobiography this week, Woodroffe insists he has mellowed from the person he admits was “loud, obsessed, egotistical and self-centred”.
Yet it is clear he cares strongly about a host of issues – even if many won’t share his views. Take the future of the high street. “Let it go,” is his blunt solution to the crisis facing many areas. “You can’t keep on saying ‘how are we going to protect our lovely high street?’ Let the shopping malls turn into something else, whether apartments or climbing walls, or ice baths or whatever. I think in five, 10, 20, 30 years you will look up in the air and see lots and lots of drones going along and the roads will be landing areas.”
Or the role of government: “I’m not in favour of the government doing anything. I think the government should stop and get on with implementing the will of the people.” He even advocates dumping politicians altogether: “We should be governed by this new generation of tech kids.”
All this from a businessman worth about £50million, who is based in Thailand and doesn’t pay any UK tax. Isn’t he preaching from the outside? “So what?” is his reply. “You don’t have to read me. You can shut my book, you can turn me off the telly, that’s absolutely fine by me.”
Woodroffe was thrust into the public eye after the launch of Yo! Sushi in 1997. The chain, with its conveyor belts and robots, was a dramatic departure at the time. And its success – he later sold the entire business for around £12million – is all the more impressive given he started it at the age of 45, with no experience in the restaurant trade.
Woodroffe says a turning point in his life came in 1970, when he was sentenced to three months in a detention centre for drug dealing. At the time, he was living in a flat in Cambridge. “The first three or four days were absolute hell, and then you get used to it and learn the system,” he recalled. “The human ability to adapt in incredible.” He was released after eight weeks and, from there, set about making something of his life.
He ended up back living at his mother’s house in deepest Essex, looking for work. One day, thumbing through the job ads in The Stage, he spotted a post for stage manager in London’s West End. Despite his lack of experience, he got the job.
That led to a career in stage design, which eventually saw him work on huge concerts for a string of music legends. Recalling his time on the tour bus with Ozzy Osbourne, he says: “Someone would be asleep and they’d have their face gaffer taped. They were good fun times but they took the shows seriously. Ozzy was a really, really good performer. In spite of all that bumbling act, he was real pro on stage.”
He once visited Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney at his Kent farmhouse. Writing in his autobiography, Yo! Man, he recalls: “Paul was stood by the kitchen sink as we entered. ‘Cup of tea?’ he announced and then went to make a pot of tea for us all.”
Despite working with everyone from Rod Stewart to Led Zeppelin, he eventually decided to move on, which led to selling rock shows and other content to TV stations. Despite making a packet, he moved on again and, by the mid-1990s, Woodroffe says he was down on his luck, with money fast running out.
“I was pretty lost,” he admits. He considered starting a business with an ice cream van, chauffeur car or removals, until a lunch meeting and a suggestion for a conveyor belt sushi bar.
Woodroffe ploughed whatever he had left into the concept and, in January 1997, the first Yo! Sushi branch opened in London. It wasn’t an instant success but eventually caught the public’s imagination. Woodroffe sold an initial stake in the then booming chain six years later. Remembering the time he checked his bank balance soon after, he writes: “My hand shook as I keyed in my PIN number. It was 2003 and there was £2million in the account.”
While hotel chain is another notable success Yotel, there have been a fair few wacky business ideas along the way. Firmly in that category was his plan to buy the then Millennium Dome in London and create a vast venue called The Beach, with real sea, sand, surfing and sailing.
While it didn’t get far, speaking now, it is clear Woodroffe has much still to achieve, with the Yo! brand at the heart of it. He wants to be buried with a gravestone engraved with the words Yo! Below. “I think I’m a lucky guy,” he concludes. “I’m happier than I have ever been.”
Yo! Man is published by Whitefox Publishing on June 4, priced £22.99
