THE only way is up for Old Monmothina Mountain Warehouse tycoon Mark Neale, who from humble South Wales beginnings has amassed a fortune of around £200m, including a big slice of the US outdoor market.

The 57-year-old, who has a physics degree from Oxford University, started the firm beloved of hikers and dog walkers with one store in Swindon 27 years ago.

But the business now owns some 400 stores worldwide, including seven new outlets in the US recently added to the portfolio by acquiring Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) in a £7.6m deal.

CEO Neale, who grew up in Abergavenny, said he had been watching the US company, which once had 100 outlets, for a “long time".

"EMS is such an iconic, well-established brand. I think it’s going to be a brilliant foothold for Mountain Warehouse in America.

“The US is by far the biggest outdoor market in the world. We’re building a global business, so we can’t ignore the US,” he says.

Mountain Warehouse emplys 3,700 people and made pre-tax profits of £26.2m last year after recording a record turnover of £386m.

But the multi-millionaire started from an 'ordinary' background in South Wales, with many of Neale's family still living in Abergavenny, which has a store and where he moved at the age of four after being born in Ebbw Vale.

His grandfather was a Baptist church minister, while the other worked in the former Ebbw steel works, a history Mark is "very proud of".

Growing up in Aber, he later attended Monmouth School for Boys, now part of Haberdashers' Monmouth, which says: "Mark embodies the entrepreneurial spirit nurtured at our school.

"His success with Mountain Warehouse, which he founded in 1997, highlights how the skills and values cultivated at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School can lead to global success."

Having graduated from Oxford, instead of science he headed for the City, where he worked for four years as a strategy consultant.

Then he decided to set up his own business, having wanted to do so since his younger days, although it took him four goes to finally get a business off the ground, with Mountain Warehouse going on to become one of the leading global outdoor outlets.

"At first I had a shop selling rollerblades, which were quite big at the time and at one point had five shops, and I had a toy shop as well and a place selling greeting cards, which were a disaster.

"Then we founded Mountain Warehouse, which seemed to work and it has really grown over the past 20-plus years, growing gradually from nothing," added Mark, who is married to Michelle Feeney, former boss of tanning company St Tropez, and is worth £199m according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

The business started selling stock clearance items, before then selling their own branded clothing and gear.

In 2019, it opened six new stores in Wales plus ten in New Zealand, and also also has outlets in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and Poland.

Prior to the recent acquisition of EMS, Mountain Warehouse had been operating in North America for more than a decade through some 50 stores, which contributed £65m to annual sales.

Neale told The Times of the latest EMS acquisition: “They haven’t really been nurtured and loved by people who understand the outdoor business and the outdoor customer. I think we bring a deep understanding of the outdoor market.

“We want to stabilise it initially and then grow it again. At one point, they had over 100 shops and we’d definitely like it to get back there.”