1968

Childhood

Nick Grey was born 12th July 1968, in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. As nearly the youngest of seven children, he was used to receiving his older siblings’ broken, bashed up toys rather than getting new ones. But Nick didn’t mind. In fact, he would spend hours fixing them, finding more satisfaction mending an old toy than having a new one.

“I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to be, but I always loved fixing and mending things”

Nick Grey - Born
12th July 1968

Childhood Hero

“Growing up, I really admired my dad. He ran a business, and it was clear that he was under a lot of stress, but he always found time to encourage me. Once, I bashed together some wood to create a little toolbox and showed him. He said it was shoddily made at first, but then he told me how I could make it better. So, I threw it away, made an even better one, and vowed never to make anything shoddy again”

1985

Growing Up

College wasn’t Nick’s favourite. He pulled out of A-level maths, finding it very impractical, and he scraped through physics. He knew that design and engineering was his passion. Finding the student life uninspiring, University wasn’t for him either. He just wanted to start earning some money and follow his dream of starting a business. After working a few odd jobs, he saw an opening for a lab technician at a local vacuum company, which is where it all started.

“I spent most of my time trying to make my motorbike go faster so I could overtake the school bus”

“The technical manager and the director always pushed me, giving me bits of design work to do, which I loved”

1989

Starting A Career

Working at Vax really built Nick’s confidence and skills. Starting off as a lab technician, it was his job to assist the design engineers with their work and to keep the labs clean, but he soon started getting more hands on with design. He worked his way up to a design engineer, to senior design engineer, to design manager, to eventually managing the engineering department in the space of 12 years.

“I always wanted to start my own company, I just didn’t know what I was going to do – Vax gave me confidence and the tools”

2001

The Garage Days

It all started in a garage. Working on two products to begin with, Nick brought in four extra pairs of hands to help him design a mini fan, and the world’s first cordless power sweeper. Three of these original four employees still work at Gtech now: Andy Kent, Andrew Boddy, and Leo Smith.

“I promised myself that I’d give myself 18 months to launch a product. After that, I’d either be making money or I’d get another job”

“I loved working in a garage. I loved the peace and quiet of the solitude, and I remember thinking, I’d do this for nothing”

2003

Next Step: A House

Although Nick loved working in his garage, the time came for him and his team to move somewhere bigger. He bought a house in Whittington, Worcestershire, which had the extra space they needed to design more products, as well as stairs, curtains, and carpets to test on.

The goal was to make the everyday job of vacuuming cordless, while the mission statement was, and still is, to be the best-loved brand.

Gtech - Model HyLite 2 - Lightweight Cordless Vacuum Cleaner - Brochure