A former record shop boss who started a business in his garage is to set to net a more than £30million fortune.
Steve Oliver, 50, co-founded MusicMagpie in 2007 initially to buy and sell secondhand CDs online.
It has since grown to also become a leading reseller of mobile phones, other electronic gadgets and books.
Mr Oliver will be one of the big winners under a planned stock market listing which could see the business valued at just under £210million.
As well as selling £12.2million in shares, he would retain a 9.5% stake worth nearly £20million.
Mr Oliver and co-founder Walter Gleeson set-up MusicMagpie from the garage of his home in Stockport, Greater Manchester.
The pair worked together at high street chain Music Zone - where Mr Oliver was managing director - before its collapse.
MusicMagpie now boasts more than seven million customers, and has an offshoot in the US called Decluttr.
It resold over 400,000 products in the year to November last year, during which time revenues were £153million and it made a near £14million profit.
The firm plans to use the £15million raised through the flotation to build its monthly subscription model and roll-out in-store kiosks which can value and pay out for someone’s used item in just four minutes.
Asked what he would do with his new-found wealth, ardent Manchester City fan Mr Oliver said: “I’m a humble bloke from Stockport and it won’t change me at all.
“I will be looking to share that out with my nearest and dearest.
“It is potentially a life-changing amount of money and it will be something I will adjust to.
“But it is really about the business and I am so pleased for the team.”
On the company’s future, he said: “Given the ongoing move to tackle the growing problem of e-waste and the fact that consumer attitudes towards buying refurbished consumer technology products are rapidly changing, we believe that there is significant potential for musicMagpie’s future growth prospects.
“In the UK alone, we estimate that
people are sitting on around £16.5 billion worth of technology that they no longer use, and that only a small percentage of consumer technology items are currently recycled.”
The firm plans to list on the AIM market on April 22.
