The Judges
Michael Welch
Born in Liverpool, Michael Welch had the money-making bug from a young age, doing four paper rounds and selling cans of soft drinks in the school playground at the age of 11. At the age of 17, back room at his parents’ house. After three years, he was offered a job in 2000 with Kwik Fit to launch its website. Welch, still aged just 20, thought it was too good an opportunity to turn down.
In 2001 Michael was asked by his Marketing Director what he wanted to do. “I want to become the Chief Executive of Kwik-Fit”, came a confident reply. Told that he would have to wait 30-40 years, Michael decided to leave Kwik-Fit to set up his own company, Blackcircles.com. Within a year Welch had signed up 400 garages to his network and done a deal with Sainsbury’s for a discount on tyres for staff and also found someone who was prepared to build him a website in return for receiving £1 on every tyre sold. Blackcircles.com is now the UK’s largest online tyre retailer selling to around 250,000 customers in the UK and Michael aims to make it the UK’s biggest tyre retailer and create an international brand.