Gymshark founder announced as EY's Entrepreneur of the Year

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Nicky Godding

Ben Francis, the founder of online online athleisure wear brand Gymshark, has been announced as the winner of accountancy company EY's Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020.

Ben Francis, has grown Solihull-based Gymshark from a start-up in his parents’ garage to a global brand with millions of customers in more than 170 countries.

Founded in 2012 by Ben, Gymshark turned over £170 million-a-year just seven years later. With more than two million customers and 500 employees at its Solihull headquarters, the firm has leveraged the power of social media and influencers to innovate, improve and scale-up.

Ben said: “I am proud and humbled to be the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020 UK winner at what is an incredibly exciting time for Gymshark.”

Earlier this year, Gymshark, entered a strategic partnership with General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, in its first-ever fundraise, valuing the business at more than £1 billion.

The valuation sees Gymshark join an exclusive list of fewer than 25 British companies to have secured ‘Unicorn’ status since 2001, achieving the feat in just eight years. It is only the second British company to have reached this milestone without previous support from external investors.

Ben will represent the UK at EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year next year. The EY Entrepreneur Of The Yea programme was established more than 30 years ago and today operates in more than 60 countries and 145 cities around the world.

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.