From £20-a-Day Floor Sweeper to £4m Gold Boss - How a School Dropout Built a Multi-Million Bullion Empire
A MAN from Banstead who started work sweeping floors for £20 a day now owns and runs a £4 million turnover Surrey business employing 11 people.
Harry Thorne, 30, is the founder and CEO of Bullion Club, a gold coin trading firm based in Leatherhead.
The company, which is headquartered in a Grade II-listed building, is forecasting turnover of £8 million in 2026 after hitting £4 million in 2025.
But Mr Thorne said his working life began very differently - after leaving school with no qualifications, his first job was sweeping the floor of a car repair shop for £20 a day.
He then spent seven years selling vans before moving into the gold trade through a director contact and eventually taking over the business in 2022.
It was then rebranded as Bullion Club: https://bullionclub.co.uk/
The Leatherhead company now employs 11 people in Surrey and specialises in independently graded and sealed Royal Mint gold coins, including sovereigns and britannias.
Mr Thorne, from Banstead, said: “To have gone from leaving school with no qualifications to building a business in Surrey that now employs 11 people is something I’m hugely proud of. We’ve grown quickly, but for me a big part of that success is creating jobs locally and building the business here in my home county of Surrey.”
He said his interest in gold began with his grandfather, who gave him a gold coin for each birthday while he was growing up.
By the age of 21, he had built up enough of a collection to cash it in and use the money as a £16,000 deposit on his first flat in Epsom.
A second lesson from his grandfather proved just as important.
After being given a £1,000 cheque, Mr Thorne put the money into cryptocurrency and lost the lot. He said the experience changed the way he thought about money and risk.
“At the time, losing £1,000 felt huge,” he said. “But it taught me a lesson about the difference between speculation and long-term wealth preservation. My grandfather had shown me that gold holds value over time, and that stayed with me.”
Bullion Club says its typical entry point for investors is around £2,500-£5,000, with customers buying legal-tender gold coins produced by the Royal Mint.
Mr Thorne said the business has grown as more people look for what he described as a tangible and established way to protect their money.
He added: “Being from Banstead and growing the business here in Surrey makes this especially important to me. Leatherhead has been a great base for us and we’re focused on continuing to grow the team and the business from here.”