KEY POINTS:
For 500 of John Caudwell's loyal employees it is safe to say that this year's office Christmas party, in a marquee at the firm's headquarters in Stoke, won't be easily forgotten.
First, they were wined, dined, and entertained by the pop stars Will Young and James Fox. Then,
as a fresh round of champagne was poured, waitresses swept into the room bearing gold envelopes - one for each guest.
Finally, Caudwell, the billionaire founder of mobile phone company Phones4U, took to the stage and explained that he had decided to give each guest "a small token of appreciation for your length of service".
To gasps of delight, the mobile phone tycoon announced that they would share in a £3.5 million ($10 million) "golden farewell" to celebrate his departure from the mobile phone empire, which was sold for £1.46 billion this year.
Inside their envelopes, he said, the office workers would find cheques for between £5000 and £15,000, depending on their length of service.
"People's first reaction was 'Oh my God!"' recalls one guest. "They immediately began ringing or texting home, to speak to their loved ones. Then everyone started punching the air and hugging each other. Later, an orderly queue formed of people wanting to thank John personally."
It was a typically flamboyant gesture from an entrepreneur who fought his way from the back streets of the downtrodden Shelton district of Stoke-on-Trent to become Britain's 29th-richest man, with a personal fortune estimated at £2 billion.
Caudwell is invariably pegged as a maverick. He is, for instance, a fitness fanatic who has broken his neck three times in sporting accidents, yet continues to water-ski and cycle.
He often gets up at 5.30am to cycle into work, ignoring the £200,000 Bentley parked on the driveway of his Staffordshire home (a Jacobean mansion about which he once noted, "whether it's 40, 50, or 60 rooms, I don't really know").
Despite owning a helicopter, Caudwell often uses easyJet to visit the South of France, wears suits from Marks & Spencer, and buys groceries from Happy Shopper, saying: "I don't see why that's odd."
Most famously, perhaps, he cuts his own hair in order to save £10 for a trip to the barber, and admits to waxing his girlfriend's legs in an effort to decrease the spiralling cost of her beauty regime.
However, despite Caudwell's reputation as a tough employer - he is vehemently anti-union, and once banned employees from using email in order to increase their productivity - the £3.5 million gift was aimed squarely at those at the lower end of the corporate food chain.
"My senior executives have already been rewarded very highly as a result of the sale, and I wanted to look after people lower down the pay chain," he explained.
"I've got a lot of people who have been very dedicated and loyal and hard-working over the years, and it felt like the right thing to do."
Like many successful entrepreneurs, the 54-year-old Caudwell had a tough upbringing. The eldest son of a salesman, who died when he was 14, and a postal worker mother, he was bullied for having ginger hair and freckles.
The Phones4U empire was founded in 1987, when mobile phones were the size of small bricks. Caudwell and his younger brother Brian bought 26 at a discount on their £1500 retail price, and took more than eight months to sell them, at a small profit.
Nineteen years later, his business empire was selling more than 26 phones a minute, and extended to six countries.
- INDEPENDENT
