The CEO of an air conditioning and refrigeration firm has revealed how he went from being thrown out of school three times for fighting to heading up a business that’s just turned over £3.5m.
Everkool’s Craig Greenwood, 32, has personally and commercially grown from strength to strength in his short career.
Starting out with “nothing”, Craig said he sold bags of crisps and cans of pop at school, before leaving with a couple of GCSEs to pursue a further education course in refrigeration.
Liverpool-born Craig, who also boxed for England as a youngster, decided upon the name ‘Everkool’ when driving past Goodison Park, home of Everton FC, despite himself being a LFC fan.
He now wants to give back to his local community - and dozens of his employees are those who may have struggled at school, but now show a willingness to turn things around.
How it all began
Craig’s upbringing was humble - on a council estate in Walton.
“I wasn't a very clever lad, academically. I was a bit of a naughty kid really,” he explained.
“I had a little bit of ADHD and I have been kicked out of a few schools, shall we say.
Most Read
“In that area, no one had nothing, and there were not many activities to do for young people so they would get bored and get up to all sorts.
“You can go one way or another in that area, shall we say, and thankfully I kept my head down and got into refrigeration and air conditioning.”
He said he was kicked out of three separate schools for fighting, and that one of the causes of his struggles was his glue ear - a condition where the middle ear fills with a glue-like fluid instead of air, causing dulled hearing.
“Getting thrown out was just for fighting in school. Glue ear is like hearing underwater, and it began from a very early age.
“It meant that from the very beginning, I couldn’t really talk. I would try and speak but other kids couldn't understand me. I would get frustrated and lash out at them.
“I was also behind in school because of the condition. I never really enjoyed it anyway.”
Craig finally settled at De La Salle Academy in Croxteth, where he would eventually leave with a couple of GCSEs.
Don’t miss
He said: “People think I’m great at maths now because of how I am with sums and spreadsheets, but I wasn’t in school. I’ve only learnt that as I’ve grown my business - working out what percentages and margins were.”
Despite his struggles at school, Craig was an excellent boxer, and even competed for England.
“I started boxing when I was 11 - it was my passion. That’s what I wanted to do all along - be a pro.
"But I always thought I should get into a trade just in case I got an injury, so I got into refrigeration and air conditioning - that was my fallback.
"I had a couple of years where I wasn't as dedicated, shall we say, and a couple of things happened and then I couldn't carry on.
“I drifted away from boxing and then opened my business. I started making a couple of quid and then just thought ‘you know what, I either put my all into it or I won't do it’. I'm all or nothing, as a personality. So I stopped boxing and I haven't actually been since then.
"I went from being 100% dedicated to just not doing it. I’m now 110% in on the business side of things.”
Craig said that despite his difficult upbringing, his entrepreneurial mindset began to shine through at an early age.
"I think it was to do with not having money as a kid. I was one of the kids that sold crisps in school. I’d buy cans and packs of Disco crisps from Farm Foods then sell them.
Want more business news straight to your inbox?
BusinessLive is your home for business news from around the country - and you can stay in touch with all the latest news through our email alerts.
You can sign up to receive morning news bulletins from every region we cover and to weekly email bulletins covering key economic sectors from manufacturing to technology and enterprise. And we'll send out breaking news alerts for any stories we think you can't miss.
Visit our email preference centre to sign up to all the latest news from BusinessLive.
“I wasn’t allowed to but we never had much money growing up so I had to do what I had to do. My mum was a single parent with three kids.
"We had nothing. I enjoyed it - going home and not asking my mum for money because I had my own.”
Craig was 16 when he left school, opting to take a course at Liverpool Community College before launching Everkool as a one-man-business.
An underachiever at school, Craig said he was written off by many he spoke to shortly after launching his firm.
“I was never afraid. I was 19 when I started Everkool, and everyone said 'what are you doing? You've got no experience on the tools, never mind running your own company’.
“The attitude I had at the time was that if it doesn’t work out, I can go and work for someone else. I lived at my mum's at the time, I didn’t have any fear.
“I was a good engineer and good at my job and a quick learner.”
Red or blue
The story of how he named his firm may come as a surprise to many football fans, particularly in Liverpool.
He explained: “I drove past Everton’s football ground Goodison Park one day. I looked at it, and thought ‘Everkool’. That's where it came from.
“I’m a Red, but I’ve got all blue colours and a blue logo for my brand.
“I would have associated it with Liverpool, but red is associated with heat, fire and hot. Blue is associated with cold - as is refrigeration.”
He also said he has recently bought former Blues chairman Phillip Carter’s old house - not far from Goodison.
Craig said his initial tactic was to “walk the streets of Liverpool” handing cards out to bars, restaurants, supermarkets, sweet shops, chippies and more.
He said: “Anywhere that's got a fridge that sells food or drinks - they were my target audience.
"Some of my customers who still use me now, I met on that day - when I was handing cards out.”
He said he chose refrigeration as it’s a “niche market”.
The industry has often been “neglected” by aspiring tradesman in Merseyside, so he said he wanted to seize the opportunity to make his mark in the business.
He added: “Lots of people get into joinery, plumbing, tiling, but I was the only person in my class to go into refrigeration. I also heard it was good pay.
“There were hardly any companies in Liverpool or Merseyside that did it. There was a gap in the market, so I got into it and I haven't looked back since.”
Having started out as one man and a van, Everkool now employs 35 people.
'You’ve got to have the right character'
And with Craig’s humble beginnings, he now wants to help others who have left school without qualifications.
He said: “You don’t need a lot of education to do it. As long as you want to learn and want to work, and you get your head down in college, you will learn the job.
“But you’ve got to have the right character. If they stick at it, I will teach them everything I know - not just through the trade, but personally as well - I like to help them get on the property ladder and things like that.”
Liverpool City Region Business News
Now a multi-million air-conditioning and ventilation business, Everkool is one of the 海角视频’s biggest suppliers of ventilation and air conditioning technology.
As a result of the acquisition of major contracts throughout Merseyside and beyond, the company was able to buy manufacturers Hargreaves ductwork LTD, meaning it manufactures all products that they use at their Bootle HQ.
Craig said that has required “significant capital investment” - but has resulted in a huge improvement in efficiency and a streamlined service.
He said: “When I opened Everkool, I was still boxing and thought the money would come from the boxing industry, not the company.
“I’m not driven by money. I’m more driven by success. I never got paid as an amateur boxer - that was my love - the sport. That's what I’m like with my business now.
“Entrepreneurs have a lot of guts, and my boxing career meant I wasn't scared of nobody.
“I will break through barriers others would not want to due to the risk. I take the risk on and I’ve made mistakes, but I learn from them and make sure they don’t happen again.”