Back at the wheel of Addison Lee to drive minicabs' future

TO anyone dreaming of quitting the sweaty commute and daily grind for a life of working again, Liam Griffin says: don't do it.

- Lucy Tobin

His family sold Addison Lee for £300 million in 2013, with Griffin staying on at the cab firm until he fell out with its private equity buyer Carlyle in 2015. He then retired, aged 42. Five years of travelling, angel investing, property development, triathlons and Ironman followed before he realised: "I missed work."

"Early retirement means you miss your sense of purpose. I read every self-help book going - it's not all happiness and light to be sat at home at 42 with no job."

Griffin has spent his career in cabs, starting with childhood summer holidays in the tiny Battersea minicab office of Addison Lee, the business his dad founded in 1975. He then joined the firm after graduating from Loughborough University, taking over as CEO from his father, John, in 2006.