A serendipitous meeting in Mark Llewellyn’s former life as a rugby player led him to the idea that would one day become Revive! UK. Going from scrumming on pitches to serving as managing director of a vehicle repair business mending the nation’s scuffs and scratches, he has grown it to a 65-strong franchise network set to turn over £8.5m this year.
Given Llewellyn was born and bred in Rugby, the birthplace of the sport, it’s hardly surprising that he grew up with a real passion for the game. “I used to play for Coventry and Saracens,” he says. Whilst studying for a degree in literature and French at Hatfield Polytechnic, he received several offers to play for clubs in France once he’d graduated. Being something of a francophile, he soon decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up. “Going to France had always been an idea that really appealed to me,” he says.
Once Llewellyn finished his studies, he relocated to Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in the Gironde region, playing for its team Stade Foyen for the next five years and helping it to climb to the top of the league. “We actually won the second division championship,” he says.
However, it was when new player Richard Bice joined the team from Canada that Llewellyn’s life took a different turn; as Llewellyn had helped him to settle into the new opportunity, Bice offered to repay the favour. “He said: ‘I know you’re looking to move on with your career – I’m sure the rugby club in Canada would sort you out, if you were interested?'” Llewellyn recalls. “I thought: ‘what have I got to lose?'”
So, in 1992, Llewellyn moved to Vancouver and began playing for the Vancouver Rowing Club. But it wasn’t to last long. When Llewellyn was introduced to Bice’s brother-in law, he discovered that he owned a franchise that provided a small to medium area repair technique (SMART) service – a system that effectively allowed him to fix minor vehicle damage on the go. And it’s safe to say the idea really excited him. “It’s a great business concept in a busy world,” he says. “You can have your car repaired to an extremely high quality wherever it happens to be. That convenience factor really appealed to me.”
Josh Russell
When he isn't tooling around on trains in a tux like the Daniel Craig of the Greater Anglia transport system, Russell spends his time living the glamourous life of an enterprise journalist, judging Digital Business of the Year at the National Business Awards and attending conferences like NixonMcInnes' Meaning 2013. However, like all good secret agents, Russell lives a double life - in his case, as a closet revolutionary. Social enterprise, sustainable business and collaborative practices are his true passions, something that he has had plenty of opportunity to air in his features here at Elite Franchise.
Josh Russell
When he isn't tooling around on trains in a tux like the Daniel Craig of the Greater Anglia transport system, Russell spends his time living the glamourous life of an enterprise journalist, judging Digital Business of the Year at the National Business Awards and attending conferences like NixonMcInnes' Meaning 2013. However, like all good secret agents, Russell lives a double life - in his case, as a closet revolutionary. Social enterprise, sustainable business and collaborative practices are his true passions, something that he has had plenty of opportunity to air in his features here at Elite Franchise.
