Andy Scott Lost £6 Million Before 30 and Rebuilt
Loans came easy
Scott started as a nightclub doorman in Portsmouth at 16. At 18 he inherited £5,000 from his grandmother and bought a run-down terrace house. He renovated it and doubled his money. By 25, he says, he had developed 250 houses. He also ran hotels and bars.
He owned a 130ft yacht and flew his own aircraft. He drove two Ferraris. Much of it ran on borrowed money. In his words, “the banks were throwing money at me.” He had never lived through a downturn, so he did not see the downside.
A taxi in Washington
In 2008, Scott sailed his yacht across the Atlantic and visited the US. One early morning in Washington DC, he was reading emails on his phone while crossing a road. A taxi hit him. He broke both legs and all his fingers and spent time in intensive care. He says the accident was his fault.
His business in the UK was collapsing while he was in hospital. It took three months before he could walk again.
Depression first, then a decision
Scott says depression hit him initially. Then he decided to rebuild. He told himself he had done it before and could do it again.
Back on the door and the building site
He needed income, so he went back to bouncing and building work. He wanted to buy property again, but lenders would not touch a man who had nearly gone bankrupt. A friend eventually lent him money to convert a disused church and a former cinema into nightclubs. Both venues were successful. He built up from there and kept watching for takeover chances.
What he runs now
His company, REL Capital, buys struggling but established businesses and turns them around. In 2019 its holdings included pubs and bars, haulage firms, recruitment companies and a supplier to music festivals. A 2019 report put its annual turnover at £30 million. His own website now gives a combined £50 million a year across REL.
Scott says it was frustrating that no bank would back him the second time. He says lenders in the US are much more forgiving of people who have had a setback. A later profile of him describes a man who is more risk-averse than in his years of Ferraris and debt-fuelled spending.
