Mark Mills

WORK HISTORY

SKILLS

ABOUT MARK MILLS

I discovered what business felt like at 8 years old. Growing up, I had an aunt who worked at a biscuit factory, and every Thursday she\'d bring home a big bag of broken biscuits. Most kids would have eaten them, but I divided them into small bags and sold them at school for 10p each. I made over £3 a week, which can be considered a fortune for an eight-year-old in Lancashire. But the most valuable lesson for me wasn\'t just the money. It\'s the realisation that something other people were ignoring could be turned into something valuable. That never left me. And thirty years later, my fifth business, I built and exited Cardpoint at a valuation of £175 million thanks to that way of thinking. I started it in with nothing but an idea. Two years later it was floated on AIM at £7 million. By 2007, it had 6,500 cash machines, 300 employees, and was dispensing over £500 million a month. It became Europe\'s largest independent cash machine company. Before Cardpoint, I disrupted the postal industry, installing 1,200 advertising-fronted post boxes at petrol stations across the UK. The only post box network that ever rivalled Royal Mail. Since 2007, I have spent every year applying what I learned to other people\'s businesses. I step in as Non-Executive Chairman. I work closely with the founder, uncover the hidden value sitting inside the business, and manage the entire sale process from preparation through to finding exactly the right buyer. Most business owners only ever sell once. I have done it many times, and I built a 40-step process out of every deal, every complication, and every hard lesson along the way. The accountant looks at what a business is worth today. I look at what it is worth to the right buyer, at the right moment, with the right story around it. That gap between those two questions is where the real money gets made. In December 2024, I was awarded an OBE for services to Business and Charity. I also hold the title of Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire. My book, Making Your Mark, published by Pan Macmillan, tells my full story. From my aunt’s broken biscuits to the acquisitions, the politics, the near-death moment, and every exit in between. If you have spent years building something meaningful and you are starting to think about what comes next, I would be glad to have a conversation. Book a call to get in touch.