Rory Stear founded Freeplay Energy after watching a television programme on a clockwork-powered radio. Trevor Baylis invented the radio in 1994 and Freeplay bought the rights to the invention. The...

Rory Stear founded Freeplay Energy after watching a television programme on a clockwork-powered radio. Trevor Baylis invented the radio in 1994 and Freeplay bought the rights to the invention. The world fell in love with the concept. In 2000, sales reached $37 million but the company still failed to make a profit. However, the company is now very different from the one that started making the famous radios in South Africa. Running the company on a narrow invention manufacturing-driven business model was a mistake, admits Rory Stear. The company has spent the last four years reinventing itself as a research and product development company. The number of employees was cut from 600 to 30, and all manufacturing subcontracted. In 2004, on sales of just £3 million the company was making a break-even return. Now the business is led by consumer demand and based on a portfolio of products, of which radios are a small part. The company has in the process developed a range of other products: torches, medical devices for monitoring unborn babies, and a charger for mobile phones. All of these are based on leveraging the original invention.