James Murray Wells is an English entrepreneur and founder, owner and executive chairman of Prescription Eyewear Limited (trading as Glasses Direct), London, which he started whilst at university.
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Murray Wells attended Harrow School before attending the University of the West of England to read English, with the intention of studying Law subsequently.[1][2]
His father is an investment analyst and his maternal grandfather, Wendell Clough, helped bring Ford and Chrysler to the UK.
While studying for his final university examinations, Murray Wells discovered that he needed to start wearing spectacles. Surprised by the high price quoted by an optician, he contacted first manufacturers and then individual workers until a technician told him that a pair of glasses selling for £150 costs only £7 to make. Inspired by this, he created a website selling spectacles directly to the public, initially funding his business using the remains of his student loan, he joined the small existing group of online spectacles retailers in the UK's traditionally highly controlled, arguably monopolistic spectacles market.[1] (See the article UK Opticians (retailers) for a discussion of industry structure.)
In its first year of business, Murray Wells' new company Glasses Direct sold 22,000 pairs of glasses, and had an annual turnover of £1m.[3] In 2009 Glasses Direct had 70 employees and sold a pair of glasses every three minutes.[4]
When starting Glasses Direct, Murray Wells adopted a dog as an office mascot called Sapphie, who he loved for "her quiet discreet nature." He later named a pair of spectacles frames after her.[5]
Several established chains of conventional bricks and mortar opticians attempted to close down Glasses Direct with legal and regulatory threats, leading to a particularly bitter feud between Murray Wells and the offshore based chain Specsavers.[6][7] These attempts have to date failed, and now seem to be abandoned, with Specsavers itself now attempting to sell spectacles online.
When Specsavers tried to stop Glasses Direct from trading, Murray-Wells published their lawyers' letters on his website, where they remained until the embarrassed lawyers used copyright to force their removal. Murray Wells then replaced the letters with a note explaining why they were no longer there.[8] Murray-Wells also sent out men dressed as sheep to Newcastle city centre to hand leaflets explaining how much cheaper his products were than those of high street opticians, suggesting that spectacle wearers were being "fleeced". Specsavers threatened and then abandoned legal action.[1]
In February 2010, Jamie Murray Wells set up hearingdirect.com, mirroring the business model of Glasses Direct, by selling digital hearing aids online at a fraction of the price of those offered by high street retailers. Aimed at the 8 million people in the UK with mild to moderate hearing loss, customers complete a short online hearing check devised by audiology experts, before choosing a hearing aid.[9]
Murray-Wells won the 2005 Shell LiveWIRE award for entrepreneurship, the 2005 Startup Award, the 2005 Wales and West Country Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2005 Natwest Business of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the 2006 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Young Entrepreneur Award.[2]
In 2009, he was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion,[10] becoming the youngest person to receive the award.[11]
In addition to his involvement with the taper relief campaign, Murray Wells has been a keynote speaker at the Federation of Small Businesses annual conference[12] and has taken part in events aimed at promoting entrepreneurship to school children.[13] More recently he has performed as a mentor in entrepreneurship schemes run by Channel 4 and the Times, as well as investing his own funds in start-ups.[11]
Murray Wells has served as an advisor on business and enterprise to both the UK's then Labour Party government and the then Conservative Party opposition. As a member of the New Enterprise Council he was an advisor for the then Shadow Chancellor, George Osbourne.[14]
Murray Wells has taken part in the campaign by UK entrepreneurs against the changing of UK taxation laws to end taper relief, arguing that this change will damage the prospects of future entrepreneurs and start-up companies.[13]
It currently (June 2009) seems likely that Murray Wells will run for Parliament as a Conservative candidate.[15]
Murray Wells has expressed a strong interest in Web 2.0 and disruptive technologies and business models.[13] He took part in organizing a Flash Crowd event as part of the taper relief campaign,[16] and his website Idea Volcano is designed to promote collaborative open source problem solving between entrepreneurs.
Murray Wells seems to make a habit of searching for blogs that refer to Glasses Direct on the Internet, replying to them and occasionally adopting customer suggestions.[17]
Murray-Wells asked customers to write about Glasses Direct on Wikipedia, somewhat to the irritation of some Wikipedia editors - although no attempt seems to have been made to suggest what contributors should write. (See the history of Talk:Glassesdirect.)
Murray Wells is a close friend of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (née Catherine Middleton), and was involved in advising Middleton with her own potential fashion business.[1][18] Murray Wells also briefly dated Michelle Dewberry