Regional finalists to vie for Great British Entrepreneur Awards

Published by

Nicky Godding

The finalists for the 2019 NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards have been announced, and the shortlist includes many exciting new businesses from across our region.

2019 is the seventh year of the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Previous winners include James Watt of BrewDog and Shaun Pulfrey of Tangle Teezer.

A total of 630 finalists from eight regions are competing across 13 categories, including Creatives Industries, Scale-Up, Young and Disruptor.

The National Final will take centre stage during Global Entrepreneurship Week in London in November.

Revealing the finalists, founder of the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards, Francesca James, said: “We have such a diverse range of businesses in terms of size and industry, and the calibre really is quite incredible.

Gordon Merrylees, Director of Entrepreneurship at NatWest, said: “NatWest is proud to support the Great British Entrepreneur Awards celebrating another year of amazing achievements for entrepreneurs starting and growing businesses from every corner of the country.”

Finalists from across the region include:

Entrepreneur for good award finalists

Eoin Sharkey of The BioFactory, a company registered in Oxfordshire but operating in Bath. It designs sanitation solutions for use in refugee camps and rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Wendy Tarplee-Morris & Simon Tarplee of The Little Princess Trust based in Hereford. The Trust provides real hair wigs to children and young people with hair loss

Family business entrepreneur of the year award finalists

Heather and Sebastian Horton of digital marketing agency Ecrubox Digital near Pershore.

Nick and Jo James of Cheltenham-based Bedfolk. Launched last year Nick and Jo were inspired to start Bedfolk while shopping for bedlinen and finding the experience confusing, uninspiring and expensive.

Food and Drink entrepreneur award finalists

Nick Bildner, Ben Lewis & Simon Ashburner launched Pulsin, based in Cheltenham, in 2007 to offer tasty, healthy foods. Their product ranges include chocolat brownies, fruit and nut bars, protein powders and shakes. All are made in Gloucestershire using natural ingredients.

Bruce & Paramjit Nagra launched Southam, Warwickshire-based Crazy Gin, spiced with British and Indian flavours to represent the combined cultures of India and Britain.

Katherine Jenner of Burning Barn Rum. A craft rum brand that rose from the ashes of a barn fire on a family farm three years ago.

Scale-up entrepreneur of the year award finalist

Paul Wenham of Tewkesbury-based Geometric Manufacturing, a CNC machining company which works with a range of manufacturers in the aerospace and defence, avionics and secure communications, military vehicles, currency and document handling equipment, and high-volume automotive products.

Small business entrepreneur of the year award finalists

Grantley Rogers of Forest of Dean-based 3p Enterprise a manufacturer and distributor of accessories designed to improve the health and well-being of pets and simplify pet ownership.

Joloyn Bennett of Banbury-based Juice UK, part of Gusto which was launched in 2012 to supply high quality, well-designed electronics accessories.

Creative Industries entrepreneur of the year award finalist

Sarah Field, of Peach Wolfe Paper Company in Worcestershire, who creates wedding stationery and greeting cards

Disruptor of the year award finalists

Stuart Anderson of Hereford-based eTravelSafety which has built a range of travel safety apps to keep people safe, anywhere in the world.

Stuart Mackintosh of OpusVL in Rugby which offers open source technology to help business scale and operate more effectively.

Entrepreneurial Spirit Award finalist

Jo Stroud, of Fabulous Collections in Leamington Spa. Jo established designer jewellery retailer, Fabulous, 13 years ago, after a career in marketing and book retailing. With a successful commerce site, the company has three Fabulous shops in Leamington Spa, Bath and Solihull.

Over time, Jo’s suppliers became her competitors, so she decided to launch her own jewellery collection, Mantra - meaningful jewellery, designed to inspire and uplift. Mantra won ‘Brand to Watch’ at the UK Jewellery Awards in June 2017, and Jo went on to win the Nat West Everywoman Award in December, for an inspirational woman running a business for more than 10 years.

Health and Beauty entrepreneur of the year award finalists

Anita Hill of Kidderminster-based Comfyse, a unique maternity cushion for expectant mums and new mums to sit on.

Jack Gibson, of Fitness Worx which has gyms in Warwick, Kenilworth and Southam.

Service Industries entrepreneur of the year award finalists

Amrit Sandhar of Warwick-based The Engagement Coach, which helps companies improve engagement and productivity.

Craig McVoy of Coventry-based Beyond Brand, which helps companies build their brands.

Stuart Anderson of eTravelSafety

Jean-Henri Beukes of Oxfordshire-based Ecocleen Services

Start-up entrepreneur of the year award finalists

Dominic Portman of Worcester-base DAPV, a multi-channel e-commerce business.

Sean Mason & Mark Green of Ross-on-Wye based Two Farmers Crisps

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.