The story of Nemo began long before it became the business you see today.

It started in 2014 with my father, a little stock and an idea that was perhaps slightly ahead of its time.Back then, vaping was still finding its place in the UK.

My father saw potential in it and bought a range of products from Gamucci, the first vape brand that would become part of our story.He had the vision, but selling the stock proved much harder than expected.That was where I came in.

I bought the remaining stock from him at what I can only describe as a very generous family discount and decided to see what I could do with it myself.At first, I took the products to car boot sales.

It was simple, but it worked. I could speak directly to smokers and quickly discovered there was a market for what we were selling.The problem was reach

.A car boot sale could only take me so far, so on 27 December 2014, I began selling vape products on eBay.It wasn’t exactly straightforward.

At the time, vape products weren’t permitted on eBay, which meant dealing with listing reports, removals and all the difficulties that came with selling a relatively new category of product on a marketplace that wasn’t ready for it.Rather than making me stop, those obstacles convinced me we needed somewhere of our own.

On 5 July 2015, we launched our own website.What started with my father’s unsold Gamucci stock and a generous family discount had gone from car boot sales, to eBay, and finally to a home of its own online.

At the same time, I was going through my own journey with smoking.I was a cigarette smoker when all of this began. As I became more involved with vaping and found what worked for me, I eventually left cigarettes behind completely.I never looked back.

That changed the meaning of the business. I understood personally what it was like to be a smoker, to want something different and eventually reach the point where cigarettes were no longer part of my life.

As the business grew, however, so did the workload.There came a point when trying to do everything alone simply wasn’t sustainable. My partner could see both the potential in what I was building and how much I was struggling to manage by myself.She believed in it enough to leave her job and join me.

From that point, Nemo stopped being something I was trying to build alone and became something we were building together.We discovered that we worked remarkably well as a team, bringing different strengths to the business and supporting each other through the challenges that came with its growth.

As Nemo grew, so did the number of people behind it. Over the years, we’ve had the help of a team who have played their own part in keeping everything moving and looking after the customers who made that growth possible.

Today, my partner and I are still working side by side, with the help of our team.In 2018, Nemo Homes Ltd was officially registered.And over time, the name itself came to represent our journey in a way I hadn’t fully appreciated when we started.

Look closely at NEMO and rearrange the letters.You get OMEN.An omen is traditionally a sign or warning of what may lie ahead.

For a smoker, there can eventually come a moment when you look at the habit differently and realise that continuing down the same road may not be what you want for your future.

Turn OMEN around and it becomes NEMO.That simple reversal has come to represent exactly what Nemo stands for. Recognising the warning, changing direction and beginning another chapter.

It mirrors my own journey away from cigarettes and the journeys of many of our customers.But there is another part of our name that deserves an explanation.

Why Homes?

For us, it has a meaning that goes far beyond bricks and mortar.There is an old philosophical idea that your body is the first and only home you truly live in for your entire life. It is yours from beginning to end, and the choices you make along the way become part of how you look after it.

That idea became particularly meaningful when I thought about my own relationship with smoking.A home is something you value & look after.

Something worth protecting.And that is where the whole Nemo story comes together.OMEN represents recognising that it might be time for something to change.

Turn it around and you discover NEMO, representing a different direction and the opportunity to write the next part of your story differently.

HOMES reminds us that not every home is built from bricks and mortar. The most important one is the one you carry with you every day.

More than a decade has now passed since those first Gamucci products were sold, and the vaping industry we entered in 2014 is almost unrecognisable today.

Products have evolved, brands have disappeared, technology has changed and regulation has transformed the market.

Nemo has evolved with it.More than a decade of experience has taught us what customers actually value: products they can rely on, fair prices, knowledgeable support and somewhere dependable to return to once they’ve found something that works for them.

Being independent gives us the freedom to listen to our customers and adapt. Nemo wasn’t created in a boardroom. It has grown organically through experience, customer feedback and years of learning this industry from the ground up.

We’ve also learned that getting someone to place their first order is only the beginning.

Earning enough trust for them to place their next one is what really matters.

Some of our customers have now been shopping with Nemo for years, and that loyalty is something we never take for granted.

The black and gold identity you see throughout Nemo represents the standard we want associated with our name. Premium without being pretentious. Genuine products, knowledgeable service, competitive prices and an experience that feels considered from the moment you arrive on our website to the moment your order arrives.

Looking back, it’s remarkable how one thing led to another.My father saw an opportunity.I bought his unsold stock and found a way to sell it.

A car boot sale became an eBay account. eBay pushed us to build our own website. I left cigarettes behind. My partner left her job and joined me.

Together, with the help of our team, we built what Nemo is today.What started with a father’s vision and a box of Gamucci products became something none of us could have predicted.

More than a decade later, we’re still independent, still evolving and still writing the story.And perhaps that is the real meaning behind Nemo Homes.

Recognise the OMEN.Turn it around. Choose NEMO.

Because HOMES aren’t always built from bricks and mortar. The most important one is the one you carry with you every day.Treat it well. Make a change. Write the next chapter differently.

Stay Smoke-Free. Stay Refilled.Flip the omen. Discover your golden era.