Carving Resilience: Rick Mower on Building RAW From Second Chances

Rick Mower spent his twenties in advertising agencies, then developed what he calls "a really keen interest in alcohol and cocaine." He got into a good rehab, and has now been in recovery for 17 years. He states it plainly, early and on air, because it's the reason RAW exists.

During his recovery, Rick met people who'd been through addiction, homelessness, prison and mental health crises, without any of the advantages that got him through his own. What struck him wasn't how broken they were. It was how resilient. When he later ran a homelessness charity and watched people make enormous life changes only to be met with "oh, congratulations, now you're disadvantaged," he decided the fix wasn't more sympathy. It was a business that would actually hire them.

RAW started ten years ago with four people, making 8,000 bird boxes for BBC Springwatch with, in Rick's words, "no idea what they were doing". It's now a commercial furniture company with nearly 40 staff, supplying Gail's Bakeries, the Ministry of Defence, Franco Manca, and university and NHS clients, three-quarters of whom have backgrounds the hiring process usually filters straight out. RAW doesn't compete on being nice. It competes on price, quality and service, then lets the social impact speak for itself, sometimes literally: some furniture carries a QR code showing exactly how it was made and what it saved.

The company also runs its own charity, Raw Potential, working with around 120 children a year across the Thames Valley who are facing school exclusion, family breakdown, or the early markers of the path Rick took himself. The approach isn't remedial. It starts from the opposite assumption: that these children can be exceptional, and builds from there through woodwork, mentoring, and simple exposure to a wider world many of them have never had.

Becks and Erica asked Rick what's been hardest. His answer wasn't the obvious one. It was keeping up with demand while staying, in his own words, "blindly ambitious and purpose-driven" at the same time, a problem most fast-growing businesses would recognise.

[Listen to the full episode — player/embed]

This week's spoke: Profit

Rick landed on Profit and answered without hesitation: "It means I can employ more people and support more children." For RAW, profit isn't separate from purpose. It's the mechanism that funds it. Growing the business grows the number of people it can take a chance on.

In their own words

"I'm an addict, which is probably the most important thing to say. I'm in recovery from addiction for 17 years, and it's relevant."

"When someone tells you it can't be done, it's more a reflection of their limitations, not yours."

"Think of it as something to out-compete your competition. So instead of having your cause as something you do in the background, use your cause to win more business, which means you can do more of your cause."

About Rick

Rick Mower is the founder and MD of RAW, a social impact enterprise designing, refurbishing and manufacturing furniture while training and employing people who've come through addiction, homelessness, prison, or mental health crises. RAW's own charity, Raw Potential, works with around 120 children a year across the Thames Valley.

Reach Rick at rick@raw-workshop.co.uk, or visit raw-workshop.co.uk.

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