I was skint after being sacked for stripping at a work do… now I’m a millionaire after setting up celeb removals company
RACING through the corridors of a five-star hotel naked during a work Christmas party, Anthony Ward Thomas knew he was in deep trouble.
The salesman, from Thaxted, Essex, had been drunkenly convinced to spray the boss and his wife with a fire extinguisher - and took the prank a step further by stripping off.
That’s because it set him on the path to start a removals company that’s now one of the biggest in the UK, boasting celebrity clients - and a whopping £50million turnover.
Anthony, whose company Anthony Ward-Thomas Removals makes more than £5m profit a year, has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Simon Cowell, Keira Knightley, and even moved former prime minister Boris Johnson.
It's an incredible achievement for someone who admits he "scraped through" school, and had lofty dreams of being a professional cricketer.
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As a teenager he spent seven months in the Army before deciding it wasn't for him.
Anthony then joined the London Metal Exchange, where he worked his way up from clerk to junior dealer, before being fired for his work Christmas party antics at the five-star Grosvenor House in Mayfair.
“I was quite young and went out to lunch with one of my bosses, who could drink more than I could and was dared to do something stupid," he tells The Sun.
“The idea was for me to squirt the chairman and wife with a fire extinguisher when they entered, but I went one step further by taking all of my clothes off.
“One went up to him and said, ‘Well done, mate, you must have worked bloody hard to get a house like this'.”
The company has also been hired by a wealth of celebrities including Cate Blanchett, who they helped relocate to Australia, and other big stars.
Anthony recalls: “Back in the day we moved Simon Cowell and he treated the guys with such respect and generosity.
Back in the day we moved Simon Cowell and he treated the guys with such respect and generosity
Anthony Ward Thomas
“When we moved Keira Knightley she sat in the truck all the way to the delivery address because she was a nice person, and the boys were thrilled to get to chat away to her.”
They have also had a few tricky moves, including one that required airlifting a client’s possessions into a Swiss penthouse by helicopter, and another in Italy where they were forced to use a donkey and cart.
Other memorable jobs include handling Matisse paintings for Sotheby’s and installing a Vatican fireplace in West London.
'Forget Plan B'
Anthony, who is a millionaire, has homes in London and Hampshire and says his biggest splurge is National Hunt racing.
He was an amateur jockey until 2014 and at one point owned four racehorses – he bought one for £10,000 to celebrate acquiring Aussie Man & Van.
Reflecting on his company’s success, Anthony says he could never have imagined how well they would do.
He says: “I mark my success not by pounds, shillings or pence but when the phone rings and it’s someone I moved 30 years ago asking me to move them again.”
For those thinking about starting their own business, Anthony advises not to "over-research" because "anxiety kills an entrepreneur’s spirit”, and choose something you enjoy.
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He adds: “If you decide to go it alone, do not have a Plan B.
“If you have a Plan B you will always be looking behind or to the side of you. Concentrate, focus, be narrow-minded, and do not look back.”