In 1960, (at 21 years of age),  after completing National Service in the Royal Navy, I became director of my first company, Waste Lubricating Oils Ltd ^[1], (WLOL), there then followed over two decades of total effort to build WLOL into a company operating throughout the UK with some 10,000 customers and a 1980 turnover of £1 million.  I had also developed and patented ^[2] an oil recycling  process trade marked ‘FLOWEN’ ^[3].    

In 1979 Robert Owen International Ltd, (ROIL), was formed to sell, under licence, the Flowen technology overseas, the first joint venture was established with Texas USA in 1980 and its first multi million $ Flowen plant opened in New Jersey  ^[4]  also see video  (please note that Internet explorer will block the content automatically as a result of its own security behaviour, click here for instructions) in 1982, ahead of confirmed sales in Australia and Indonesia ^[5]  .   

WLOL’s policy of supplying no more than 20% of total product to any one customer, together with the global energy crisis of the early 1980s’ precipitated an approach from one of WLOLs’ customers, Tarmac, who in order to obtain 100% of WLOLs’ FLOWEN FUEL OIL asked if ROIL would sell its subsidiary, WLOL.