‘I look at these offenders and think that could have been me ... but now I have 925 shops’

Lush co-founder Mark Constantine tells David Cohen about how being kicked out of home aged 16 drove his success ... and made him support the Standard’s Jailbreak project
Rags to riches: Lush co-owners Mark and Mo Constantine (Picture: Alex Lentati)

Why would a couple worth around £200 million seek to help young offenders reboot their lives by backing them as social entrepreneurs?

The super-rich often engage in philanthropy for a range of opaque reasons, but in the case of Mark and Mo Constantine — co-owners of Lush Cosmetics and funders of the latest phase of our Frontline London campaign — their motivation appears transparently personal.

“I look at these young offenders and I see what could have happened to me,” said Mr Constantine, 62.

“I was kicked out of home as a teenager and wound up homeless, sleeping rough in the woods. My stepfather was a nasty piece of work, but being locked out and told by my mother ‘you’re on your own now’ at age 16 was deeply shocking. I had no family to turn to because my father had abandoned us when I was two years old.”

Two things made the difference, he said. “I came through because of the love of a woman and support from a charity that supplemented my income as an apprentice hairdresser and allowed me to rent a room instead of bivouacking in the woods.”

He married that woman and they would go on to found an ethical cosmetics empire that spans 925 shops in 49 countries and generates sales of £454 million.

Today they sit alongside each other in a Soho brasserie, Mark in a favourite Paul Smith blazer, Mo diminutive beside him, married for 42 years, the unlikely heroes of an inspirational rags-to-riches story.

Two of the successful candidates: Inmates Derina Douglas, 30, left, and Katie Crilly, 30, whose social businesses, respectively, are a mothers' support network and a vocational taster course mini academy (Picture: Alex Lentati)

Yet Mr Constantine has never forgotten how vulnerable he felt as a homeless teenager. “I felt Mo’s hand on my heart, and without her and that £2.50-a-week leg-up from the Gordon Charity Trust, I too could have ended up making bad choices and ending up in prison.”

Mark and Mo have bankrolled our £105,000 Frontline London Jailbreak initiative, in which five prisoners due for release were given a life-changing opportunity to become social entrepreneurs after a dramatic Dragons’ Den-style selection process.

The five winners — chosen from 70 inmates who applied from HMP Isis and HMP Holloway — each get an £8,000 start-up grant, a business mentor and a 10-month programme at the School for Social Entrepreneurs starting in May.

Mrs Constantine, 61, who was one of the six “dragons” on the selection panel back in January, said it had been “an inspirational, extraordinary, emotional day”. “The young people who presented their ideas had not been winners in their life before, so it was a huge make-or-break moment for them,” she said.

“It was amazing to see their families there in support, aware that this was their child’s big chance to make a fresh start.”

Inmates and their social businesses (from left to right): Richard Grimwood, 22, landscape gardening; Sam Walker, 26, family fitness local camps; and Pablo Sharpe, 23, eco-friendly industrial cleaning (Picture: Alex Lentati)

In fact starting over, as the Constantines did 40 years ago when they launched their range of natural bathroom products with savings of just £200, and then did so a second time after going bankrupt and restarting as Lush in 1995, can be a powerful driver, said Mrs Constantine.

“They call it the entrepreneur’s wound. A surprising number of entrepreneurs, including Mark, have it and these young offenders, who will be super-determined to overcome their past, have it too.”

For Mr Constantine this “wound” was reopened when, on the eve of his 60th birthday, a friend tracked down his father, John Constantine, who Mark had not heard from in 58 years. “My friend sent me a text with three words: ‘Found him. Alive.’ I couldn’t believe it! He was living in South Africa and he had two daughters who were my stepsisters that I didn’t even know existed. Emails were exchanged and within days Mo and I and our three children were on the plane to South Africa.

“Seeing my dad was beyond words for me. We had four wonderful days together. He was full of remorse that he had not been in contact and we both said how much we missed each other. Six weeks later my dad died, so the whole thing was incredibly timely. I feel so grateful we had that time together and I have felt a lot more settled within myself since connecting with him.

“But the odd thing, looking back, was that one of the first things I said to him was, ‘Dad, I’ve got 925 shops!’ I was like any young son wanting to impress his dad. It has made me wonder: did I unconsciously seek to become rich hoping it would make my dad find me? Why do I need 925 shops? Is this drive all tied in with my dad or the lack of a dad in my life?”

The imminent opening of Lush’s biggest store yet — shop number 926 — reveals a drive that is nevertheless as insatiable as ever. On April 24, Lush will open their flagship store in Oxford Street. It will be their most spectacular yet, six times larger than any Lush shop worldwide and showcasing 100 new products and a spa with four treatment rooms.

IT’S another milestone in an extraordinary story that has seen Mark and Mo build a group valued by the Sunday Times Rich List at £320 million, making their 62 per cent share worth £198 million.

Four years ago, the couple received OBEs from the Queen for services to the beauty industry. This was despite the fact that they have funded controversial groups such as anti-aviation activists Plane Stupid, who seven years ago stormed Stansted Airport and were arrested. Today Lush mainly funds human rights, environmental and animal welfare groups, such as Reprieve and Climate Rush, and last year the group donated £3.8 million to charities on top of pre-tax profit of £23.3 million. So is Mark a businessman at heart or a frustrated activist trying to change the world?

“I’m a capitalist,” he said, without hesitation. “I believe in the profit motive, but there is capitalism that creates value and capitalism that destroys, bees and locusts so to speak, and I believe in the bee side of it. I don’t see myself as a social reformer, but I look at what the Evening Standard is doing and I want to be part of it. It is framing the debate on social exclusion in London and it is making all of us think about how we can create an enlightened social contract with the city we live and work in.

“That is why Mo and I are delighted to support Frontline London. We hope that your readers will give the five young offenders a leg-up by hiring them or supporting them in business as they set out on their exciting journey to become London’s next social entrepreneurs.”

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