Matthew
Charles
Phauré

I left sixth form early and landed a trainee role working in private equity, supporting businesses as they prepared for an IPO. It was highly competitive and often brutal, but it taught me how the world of finance works, how to read people and how to build relationships under pressure. It's also where I discovered my entrepreneurial spirit.

When the financial crisis brought that chapter to a close in 2009, I moved into workplace supplies. I was making hundreds of client calls a day, and what I discovered was that customers rarely distinguished between the products on offer. What they cared about was how they were looked after.

That insight shaped everything that came next. In 2011, I started what would become Office Oracle – in a garage, with no external funding, learning to run a business from the ground up: credit control, procurement, logistics and HR. The early days were messy, but I quickly learned that a business needs to be responsive, accountable and genuinely human in how it operates.

Over time, that evolved into what is now OO Group – a nationwide workplace concierge partner structured around a multi-brand model. The logic behind it is straightforward: each brand can move quickly and meet customers where they are, while the group provides the structure and scale behind them.

I've always believed customer experience isn't a department or a function; it is the business. Every customer interaction either builds trust or erodes it. As the workplace has grown more complex, our focus has stayed clear: understand your customer inside out and make life easier for everyone who depends on you.

In 2022, OO Group completed its first acquisition – Graphic Office Supplies – and I'm actively working towards the next. As part of a wider commercial interest, I invest in other companies as a business angel. I'm always on the lookout for the right acquisition or venture – one that brings trusted people and complementary expertise into OO Group and builds on what we've established.