Oliver Cookson
| Oliver Cookson | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Owner & Founder of GoNutrition, Founder of Myprotein. |
| Net worth |
 £152million (as of 2016) "The medicines millionaires"
|
Oliver Cookson is a UK entrepreneur who established the sports nutrition business Myprotein. In 2011 Cookson sold Myprotein for a reported £58 million to The Hut Group . He later established Monocore which has launched two brands, GoNutrition and Saints & Slimmers. He is also the founder of P-Fit and OSC Group.
Cookson worked before and after school on a paper round and on the weekends in a take-away. Cookson left school at the age of sixteen with one GCSE to take up a junior IT position under an Apprenticeship scheme for a company called Pantek. He progressed to become a contract website developer for a range of different blue-chip organisations around the UK. In 2001, when Cookson was aged 22 he was convicted of incitement under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 by Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty. Cookson was fined £600 and ordered to complete 200 hours community after undercover investigators exposed the ploy and found Cookson masterminded a cable TV dodge which allowed viewers to see pay-per-view channels for free.
In 2004, Cookson established the business Myprotein using an overdraft of £500. He used his website development abilities combined with his interest in fitness and sports nutrition to form the Myprotein business. On 1 June 2011, Cookson sold Myprotein to The Hut Group for a reported £58 million to The Hut Group. Cookson remained on the board of directors of The Hut Group until October 2012 when he resigned from the board.
A fund-raise in July 2015 values The Hut Group in the region of £900m. The Trust which Cookson is a beneficiary, still holds a major stake in The Hut Group as of July 2015.
On 1 November 2011, Cookson established the business Monocore Ltd. One of the first concepts developed by the Monocore business is the weight management initiative known as Saints & Slimmers launched in December 2012. The second enterprise started by Cookson in August 2013 was GoNutrition, which sells sports supplements directly to consumers through its website similar to Myprotein.
Oliver Cookson was involved in a long running case of litigation with The Hut Group over the sale of Myprotein in 2011. Cookson was sued for £15 million with The Hut Group claiming overestimation affected the valuation of the company when they bought it. Cookson counter sued for £12.7 million claiming a breach of warranty and fraudulent mis-representation. The matter went to the High Court in London in October 2014 and after a month-long trial, judgement was given by William Blair in November 2014 giving Oliver Cookson an overall net result win of £6.5m in damages.
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