Coaltown Coffee owner: I got a D in GCSE business but my company’s thriving

The owner of a coffee business whose clients include the House of Commons and Selfridges has said exam results are “just part of the story”.

Scott James, from Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, left sixth-form college three months in after barely “scraping through” his GCSEs.

The Coaltown Coffee founder, now 31, said he was pleased the world was becoming more accepting of different types of learning, but felt there was still “too much emphasis” on formal education.

Thousands of students across Wales, England and Northern Ireland will receive their GCSE results on Thursday.

“I never really got on with school, my way of learning didn’t click with the education system,” he said. “I wasn’t a bad kid or anything, I just didn’t really get it.”

Scott said it was “hilarious” that, of the mix of B to D grades he got in his GCSEs, he received a D in business.

“I was predicted an A* because I was so confident,” he said.

“The way I learn is, if there’s no purpose with it, I really struggle with having to do it.”

He said he “begged” his form tutor to let him stay on for sixth form, but knew very quickly that it would not be for him.

Instead, he started volunteering for the National Trust, which “changed the way that I learned and sparked my enthusiasm for entrepreneurship”.

Having grown up in a coffee shop his parents ran, Scott said he was passionate about the industry from a young age. But he did not have any money, so he started with a coffee subscription box service.

“If I’m quite honest, that business was pants,” he said. “I spent a lot of time [on it], and it looked really naff.”

But he said it showed him what he really wanted to do and prompted him to “take a step back and look at this town”.

Scott said a lot of “people like me” had been forced to leave Ammanford, a former coal mining town, to find work.

“We want to retain local talent,” he said. “And make coffee the new black gold.”

He went on to build his first coffee roaster, using parts of his family barbecue and a Ford Ka.

Nearly 11 years on, his roastery business has won a Great Taste award, and supplies coffee and machinery to businesses and organisations across the country.

“There is too much emphasis on education, that you have to learn everything in school and if you don’t you’re a failure,” he said.

“I don’t think many people are built for that system.

“But as long as you have passion and ambition, you can do anything with your life. People who have that drive should be encouraged.”

He now views his dyslexia as a “superpower” and actively hires neurodivergent people into his business, but had not shared it while at school due to stigma.

“I hid the fact I was dyslexic, I didn’t want anyone to know about it,” he said.

“I think the world is a lot more accepting of change now, and we talk about neurodiversity a lot more.”

He has big plans for his company, aiming to “grow the business to be the brand for post-industrialisation” with new cafe spaces and collaborations with heritage brands in the pipeline.

“We want to be at the forefront for bringing industry back to these communities,” he said.

Sending a message to students receiving their results, Scott said: “If you’ve done really well, congratulations.

“But every day has a lesson, this is not the end of the story, it’s just a part of it.”