I failed all my GCSEs and was homeless & living in a TENT at 16 – now I'm one of the richest men in Britain worth £350m | The Sun
08/27/2023AN ENTREPRENEUR who failed all of his GCSEs and was homeless and living in a TENT at 16 is now one of the richest men in Britain worth £350million.
Mark Constantine, 71, is the co-founder and CEO of Lush, a company famous for bringing the bath bomb to the world.
The ethical cosmetics retailer, headquartered in Dorset, has more than 900 shops and the brand operates in 52 countries.
The latest accounts show profits of £29.2million on sales of £408.7million.
Despite being one of the UK's most formidable businessmen and sitting 345 on the Sunday Times Rich List 2023, Constantine had a tumultuous adolescence.
His father John left the family home in Weymouth when he was just two years old.
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Constantine was then devastated by the death of his grandmother aged 12 before failing all of his O-levels.
By 16 he was homeless and living in a tent in the Dorset woods due to a difficult relationship with his mother and stepfather.
Constantine became a hairdresser in London after a family friend took him in and began developing hair products.
He was The Body Shop's biggest supplier until Dame Anita Roddick bought his business in 1991 for £6million.
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Constantine then had a go at a mail order business called Cosmetics to Go which went bust.
It was at this point, in 1995, when he launched the Poole-based company Lush with five others, including his wife, Mo.
Former legal secretary Mo is credited as the inventor of the bath bomb and the shampoo bar.
He described his difficult personal past as the "entrepreneur's wound" to the Telegraph in 2018.
Constantine claimed many successful business people have it and said he was "not the most balanced of people".
In 2013 he was finally reunited with his father. He died two months later.
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