Gavin Wheeldon

Gavin Wheeldon (born 12 May 1976) is a British businessman and entrepreneur from the Manchester area who is best known for his appearances on the reality television shows Dragon's Den and The Secret Millionaire; and a controversial contract his former company, Applied Language Solutions (ALS), signed with the United Kingdom's Ministry of Justice.[1] After selling it to Capita, he founded Purple WiFi, a company that provides free WiFi platforms to businesses for customer relationship management.[2]

Gavin Wheeldon
Born (1976-05-12) 12 May 1976
Leicester
NationalityBritish
Known forEntrepreneur

Applied Language Solutions

Wheeldon founded ALS in 2003.[3] In 2007, he appeared on Dragons' Den and offered 4% of the company in return for a £250,000 investment. None of the Dragons backed him, although he was offered half by Duncan Banatyne.[4]

Ministry of Justice Controversy

In 2011, the company signed a lucrative contract with the UK's Ministry of Justice to provide court interpreters across England and Wales. Registered police and court interpreters were unhappy about the ministry's decision to use ALS, in addition to the much lower pay offered by the company, and over 1,000 of them protested the decision.[1] The majority of them initially refused to work for ALS, leading to questions in Parliament as to whether the contract was viable.[5]

During the first quarter of the contract, ALS faced 2,232 complaints and proved capable of only fulfilling 65% of service requests.[6] Some poorly-prepared interpreters were accused of creating 'courtroom chaos' that led to cases and proceedings being delayed or collapsing entirely because they failed to show up on time or were deemed incompetent. During a meeting with the Justice Select Committee in October 2012, Wheeldon claimed the allegedly intimidating behaviour of interpreters who raised concerns over low pay offered in the contract attempted to prevent other interpreters from working on it. He also admitted that his company relied on extrapolated figures during the planning process.[7]

Sale to Capita

Wheeldon sold Applied Language Solutions to Capita plc in December 2011 for up to £67.5 million.[8] He remained the CEO of the business for six months. The company was later rebranded Capita Translation and Interpreting.

Other work

In 2009, Wheeldon appeared in an episode of The Secret Millionaire on Channel 4,[9] where he visited North Wales and observed and subsequently invested in a number of community projects.

In January 2010, the Oldham Council set up the Business Leadership Group, of which Wheeldon is a member. The group is composed of 14 local business owners who advise the Oldham Council and local regeneration body Oldham Partnership on economic and other policy matters.[10]

Purple

In May 2012, after leaving ALS, Wheeldon set up an internet business named So Purple Group Limited.[11] Now also known as Purple, it was established through the acquisition and merger of five companies to provide a number of services for the retail and leisure industry.[12] The company offers a free WiFi platform for businesses to monitor their customers' shopping patterns and habits, in addition to communicating with them with targeted messages via their social IDs.[13]

In May 2013, Purple sold its broadband division for £800,000 to Coms to focus on WiFi.[14] Until 2015, Purple was funded by Wheeldon before receiving its first outside funding of £5 million from Terry Leahy, Bill Currie, Iain MacDonald, Bob Willett, and Juno Capital.[2]

Awards
  • Director of the Year at the 2007 Institute of Directors Awards.[15]
  • In April 2010, Gavin Wheeldon's business, Applied Language Solutions, was awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise.[16]
  • In 2011, Wheeldon was the joint winner of the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award[17] at EN Magazine's northwest awards.
  • Businessman of the Year at 2012 at The One Oldham Business Awards.[18]

Personal life

Wheeldon currently lives in Uppermill, Oldham with his wife and two daughters.[19]

References
  1. Owen Bowcott; Tom Midlane (2 March 2012). "Interpreters stay away from courts in protest at privatised contract". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  2. Ingrid Lunden (14 January 2015). "UK's Purple WiFi Raises $5M To Push Its Free Social WiFi Service Abroad". TechCrunch.
  3. Applied Language Solutions
  4. Dragon's Den UK Season 4 Episode 4
  5. "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 10 Oct 2011 (pt 0004)". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  6. "MPs to investigate underperforming firm awarded £300m court monopoly". The Guardian. 16 February 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  7. "Applied Language Solutions boss Gavin Wheeldon blames interpreters for company's failures". The Independent. 30 October 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  8. "Capita Group acquires Applied Language Solutions in a deal worth potentially up to £67.5 million pounds. This was split into £7.5 million up front, with an agreement for the further sum of £60 million if the business could meet profit targets over the next four years". 27 December 2011.
  9. "The Secret Millionaire". Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  10. Oldham Chronicle: Look overseas to boost growth
  11. "So Purple Group". Archived from the original on 4 August 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  12. "Purple Wifi allows companies to grow". 7 November 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  13. Gillian West (13 February 2014). "Purple Wi-Fi introduces Presence Analytics and location-based services for consumer insights and targeted marketing opportunities". The Drum.
  14. "So Purple sells broadband division". 3 May 2013.
  15. "Region's best business leaders shortlisted".
  16. "Entrepreneur of the Year". Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  17. "The One Oldham Business Awards 2012".
  18. "Runaway train keeps on rolling".
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