After being woken in the early hours one Sunday morning in March, the first thing that sprang to the entrepreneur’s mind was who the heck could be calling at that hour. When he picked up the receiver though, the voice on the other end of the line was no other than the Government’s chief commercial officer, Gareth Rhys Williams.
The Government needed Nick’s help in designing a ventilator that could be mass produced to help patients with Coronavirus.
“My first thought was ‘this is a scam’, but the minister was calm and suggested I Google his Government profile, check the number and call him back.”
It was at this point the inventor of the cordless cleaner had to make the single most important decision that he’s made in his life. He had to decide if his company would be able to help the Government make 30,000 NHS ventilators in as little as two weeks to cope with skyrocketing infections on the frontline.
“The Government official told me there was an urgent need for the life-saving devices, but I needed to see the specification before I could make a decision. When he sent it to me, I knew it could be done.”
The founder initially set up Gtech from the confines of his Worcester garage two decades ago with savings having left his job at vacuum cleaner brand VAX. There he started to design and develop the world’s first cordless cleaner to tackle the whole house, the SW01 cordless floor sweeper in 2002, as well as other garden power tools. Since then the father-of-four has been driven to design and manufacture brilliant floorcare products, an eBike, garden range and even a massage bed by finding innovative solutions and simplifying operations. His big break came quickly and he hasn’t looked back.