Peter Phillips has his finger on the pulse of the pandemic
Every crisis presents an opportunity, as the Queen’s eldest grandson, Peter Phillips, is aware. Just months after appearing in two milk commercials on Chinese Tv, he is now directing his entrepreneurial talents in a completely different direction.
I can reveal Princess Anne’s son is one of three founding directors of XF Medical Limited, a new company established to exploit the commercial openings presented by the coronavirus outbreak
XF Medical Ltd, which is based in the King’s road, Chelsea, aims to meet the demand for speedy and accurate testing. ‘Full results ready within 15 minutes,’ boasts the company’s website, thanks to a ‘ quick and easy finger prick test’ conducted in mobile units which ‘can come to your office, event or place of work’. The tests are administered by exForces medical personnel.
Phillips, 42, is described as ‘ an entrepreneur with a background in sports and entertainment’, with ‘unique’ experience in ‘ organising largescale events with specific logistical challenges’.
The rewards from XF could easily eclipse the income from his Chinese milk ads. Phillips’s spokesman tells me the company is already ‘involved in discussions with a number of corporate entities and organisations’, though declines to offer further details.
‘Any current or future contracts for Covid19 testing are commercially sensitive and are under [nondisclosure] agreements,’ he explains.
Phillips has never had a royal title, nor has his sister Zara Tindall, and the pair have come under some scrutiny in the past for how they make their money.
In 2008, Hello! magazine paid £500,000 for the rights to Peter’s wedding to Canadian Autumn Kelly.
And last year he held meetings with colourful Chinese entrepreneur Dr Johnny Hon over a possible launch of a horseracing private members’ club in Hong Kong.
One of Phillips’s most lucrative successes was organising the notforprofit Patron’s Lunch to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday in 2016, for which another of his companies, Sel UK Ltd, was paid £750,000.
Peter and Autumn Phillips announced in February that they had separated and said they will coparent their daughters Savannah, nine, and Isla, eight.