St Andrews University student graduates as his green business tipped to hit £2m sales

He is co-founder of The Green Company, which is projected to hit £2 million in sales by the end of this year, with its range of products helping to clean the clothes and homes of over 100,000 customers from 150 countries.

Emilio helped launch the company in 2018 with schoolfriend Kieran Chauhan as part of a Young Enterprise competition. They initially made beeswax wraps in Emilio’s kitchen before selling them at local markets around the UK. The pair quickly became familiar with the hard work, long hours, excitement and challenges of building a business, in their case while completing their final years at school.

Emilio’s long-held interest in the natural world inspired his decision to pursue a degree in geography at St Andrews.

Having previously founded a number of online jewellery businesses which generated enough income to grow The Green Company in its early years, Emilio’s e-commerce experience became invaluable when the pandemic threatened the future of the company. Moving operations online not only saved the business but enabled it to flourish.

“Building a team of fantastic individuals has been the real highlight of my business journey. It always was just me and my laptop, and it becomes quite lonely!” he says, “but having had the opportunity to grow my team to seven full time members, with more to join in the coming months, has been so rewarding. Throughout my time at St Andrews it has been the tutors’ deep love and fascination for their subject which has so inspired me. Building The Green Company alongside my degree studies, I’ve also learned to acknowledge mistakes and find opportunities to build my experiences into positive lessons for the future.”He added: “My advice to others would be to ask for help when you need it. I rarely did and look back on times when there were struggles in my life and the business that I tried to battle alone, and as a result more problems arose. Now having a team around me and beginning to build contacts within the world of business, I always have someone to turn to, if I need.”