The Shortlist
The Finalists in the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards are:
Microentrepreneur Award for Sustainability
All 4 Pets
All 4 Pets, founded by Martin and Tracy Hall in 2014, specialises in natural nutrition for healthy pets. It supplies high-quality natural food for pets with all kinds of dietary requirements and intolerances. All 4 Pets now employs four full-time and two part-time staff. The firm’s turnover has quadrupled after taking loan finance from Glasgow-based DSL Business Finance, to increase stock levels, develop marketing materials and add new lines.
The Argyll Smokery
Karen Baxter and Allan McDougall own and operate The Argyll Smokery, an independent traditional fish smoke house which carries out all of its processes by hand. The business has won many food awards since launching in 2010 and employs three full-time and two part-time people from the local area. It supplies wholesalers, retailers and supermarkets and is a client of DSL Business Finance.
Killbran Toy Trailers
Killbran Toy Trailers was founded in 2013 by Frances McKillion and husband Paul. It creates modern, life-like durable toys that have been modelled on the mechanisms in full-size agricultural machinery. It now employs two full-time staff and manufactures and sells 15 pieces of toy farm equipment. It has 17 stockists across the Island of Ireland, the Isle of Man and Britain and also sells online. The firm’s growth was supported by Enterprise Northern Ireland.
Ovenbird Coffee Roasters
Ovenbird Coffee Roasters is a Glasgow-based artisanal coffee firm which aims to reduce the snobbery and expense associated with speciality coffee. Founder Davide Angeletti initially roasted coffee from home before acquiring business premises in 2015. Davide’s Whisky Aged Coffee, developed with Auchentoshan and Laphroaig distilleries, is sold in Michelin-starred restaurant, Hakkasan. Edinburgh and Stirling Castles will stock the coffee in 2018. Davide’s entrepreneurial journey was supported by DSL Business Finance.
Microentrepreneur Award for Growth
Alpkit
Nottingham-based Alpkit designs, manufactures and sells outdoor equipment. The firm was founded in 2004 as an online-only retailer when four friends with a shared passion for exploring the Alps started making gear for themselves. A loan from Enterprise Loans East Midlands enabled Alpkit to invest in its IT systems. The business now has 63 full-time employees. Every week they make over 1,500 products for climbers, hikers and bikers.
GMP Compliance
Hull-based GMP Compliance, launched five years ago with a team of two, has grown to employ more than 30 full-time staff. The firm, which provides solutions and consultancy services to the Pharmaceutical and Food supplements industry, is one of the top 10 pharmaceutical consultancies in the UK. It has grown turnover and profit consistently for five years and will move into manufacturing this year. Chamber Acorn Fund (Humber) has supported the firm’s expansion.
JMP Quality Homecare (Right at Home Preston)
JMP Quality Homecare (Right at Home Preston) provides care to enable people to stay in their own home. Clients have a range of needs including dementia, cancer, end of life care and respite care. Jane Price started the business as a franchise in 2015. She and partner Karen Myres-Price purchased another local care provider in 2016 to increase their reach. A Start Up Loan from Lancashire Community Finance has enabled them to recruit and train new carers.
Lister Steps
Lister Steps is a Liverpool charity, offering affordable care for children from six weeks to 14 years. It runs nursery, playgroup, breakfast and after-school clubs and school holiday schemes. Now in its 20th year, Lister Steps generates £14 in “social capital” for every £1 invested and has leveraged £4m of regeneration funding for its local area. Lister Steps is supported by Key Fund.
Young Microentrepreneur Award
Jake Mina Associates trading as Creative Print North West
Jake Mina Associates (Creative Print) provides print buying and management services for companies across the UK. Founder Jake Adams launched a printing service in 2012 while still in high school, providing business cards, flyers and promotional merchandise to charities. Jake set up his business full-time in 2016, expanding services to public, private and third sector organisations. Financial support from Business Finance Solutions helped the business create an online customer platform.
Joshua John Hairdressing
Joshua John Hairdressing is a hair and beauty salon established by 25-year-old Joshua Davie in Aberfeldy. In 2016, with the help of a DSL Business Finance loan, Joshua set up his own salon, renovating the old library building. He recently purchased the next-door newsagent, relied upon by many locals, when it was threatened with closure. He now has four full-time and six part-time staff, and has reinvigorated the high street.
The Milk Lounge
23-year-old Charlotte Purdie founded the UK’s first purpose-built breastfeeding café, The Milk Lounge, when as a first-time mum she spotted a gap in the market for family-friendly cafés in high street locations. Charlotte opened in a second location in 2017, and has created 15 jobs. Both cafés are popular with families drawn by the wide variety of classes and relaxed atmosphere. The Milk Lounge’s success was supported by Enterprise Loans East Midlands.
Ruach Music
Stephen Henderson is the 22-year-old entrepreneur behind Kilkeel-based Ruach Music which produces and sells handmade Cajons, pedalboards and effects pedals for guitarists. After coming across a Cajon (a percussion instrument) and unable to afford one, Stephen built his own. He continued to make and refine Cajons, advertising them online. Ruach Music now has six staff, 20 UK stockists and distributors in the USA and Ireland. The firm’s journey was supported by Enterprise Northern Ireland.
Social Entrepreneur Award
Barley Café
Prestwich’s Barley Café offers local people recovering from addiction a pathway into employment. It has already generated five full-time job offers in one year of trading. The social enterprise was launched by Susan Smith and daughter Laura in 2016, supported by a Start-Up Loan from Business Finance Solutions. Susan and Laura bring their social care experience to the recovery-focused approach at the café, supporting people to gain job experience and undergo training.
The Employability Trust
The Employability Trust (East Durham) is a ‘learning factory’ for NEETS (people not in employment, education or training). Founder Bill Marley spent decades working in manufacturing and in 2012, using his pension and with support from Key Fund, set up Employability Trust. Located in one of the 10% most deprived areas in England, it offers vocational work, training, skills and qualifications with an industry-led approach and no-pressure environment. It has already helped 180 people into work.
Harry Specters
Ely-based deluxe chocolate business, Harry Specters, has a mission to offer confidence and hope to people with autism by providing jobs and training. While on a chocolate-making course, founder Mona Shah had an epiphany: she realised that making quality chocolate involves tasks suited to some on the autistic spectrum. Harry Specters now employs four full-time and five part-time staff and has provided training and work experience to 183 autistic people. It was helped with a loan from Foundation East.
Real Junk Food Project: Sheffield
Sheffield’s Real Junk Food Project turns surplus food destined for landfill into tasty meals at pay-as-you-feel cafés and runs a market, an educational programme, high end dining events and a fast-growing catering operation. In a single month, the social enterprise serves 8,000 meals, intercepting five tonnes of food per week (with each tonne of food saving the equivalent of four tonnes of carbon dioxide). Its growth was supported by Key Fund.
Resilience Award
Key Fund
Key Fund, a social enterprise lender based in Yorkshire, has weathered ups and downs over its 15 years. It faced a particularly challenging and eventful time in 2016 – difficult economic conditions, the end of funding streams and the introduction of a new structure, strategy, chief executive and investments. To date, Key Fund has contributed £196m to the economy and created/sustained 2,439 businesses, all working at the coalface of their communities.
Lancashire Community Finance
Lancashire Community Finance provides a service for local people who have come to rely on them to provide affordable, tailored products. Over the last 13 years, it has made 11,925 loans for personal, home improvement and business use. The lender is proud to offer 1-1 non-credit scored or automated loan products, targeted at financially excluded residents. To maintain its services in a changing marketplace, the lender remains flexible and continually looks for ways to improve delivery and reduce costs.
Let's Do Business Finance
Now in its 15th year, Let’s Do Business Finance is the leading responsible finance provider in the South East. It has evolved from dependency on grants to a sustainable business model. It has achieved the transformation by focusing on the quality of its loans, building partnerships, diversifying income streams, expanding its product offering and extending geographical outreach. Having provided over £22m of finance in the past 5 years the lender has helped create and safeguard 5,750 jobs.
Moneyline
Since 2002, Moneyline has supported low-income households with 130,000 loans totaling £65m, alongside £8.5m in savings deposits. Following the loss of grant funding in 2014, Moneyline overhauled its business model to deliver sustainability.
It has since extended its network of high street branches in North West England, Midlands and South Wales. It has plans to increase the ways in which people can access its loans and invest in its products, channels, people and partnerships
Impact Award
Enterprise Loans East Midlands
Launched in 1989 as a project to help the inner city BAME community following the Nottingham riots, Enterprise Loans East Midlands has grown to become a region-wide lender, helping people from all walks of life. It is proud that 25% of loans are awarded to BAME business owners, and 40% of loan applicants are women. In 2016/17 ELEM’s activities contributed £20.2m to the local economy with £7.99 generated for every £1 lent.
Financing Enterprise
Financing Enterprise is the sole provider of a unique form of the Start Up Loan scheme, which is compliant with the principles of Islamic finance. Financing Enterprise was aware, through its own research and anecdotal evidence, that there was a significant funding gap for finance compatible with Islamic principles, and so worked with the Start Up Loans Company and The Gatehouse Bank to develop the product. Since 2014, Financing Enterprise has invested £520,000 in 64 clients, without significant investment in promotion.
Robert Owen Community Banking Fund
Robert Owen Community Banking Fund (ROCBF) creates social, economic and environmental impacts through its diverse investment activities in Wales. ROCBF helps communities develop energy schemes in the lowest income areas of Wales. In three years, it has lent £957,000 to 25 pilot schemes, leveraging £17m of construction investment. The community energy schemes operating thanks to ROBCF generate enough energy to power 5500 homes, saving almost 6m tonnes of CO2 emissions per month compared with the standard UK electricity generation mix.
Wessex Resolutions CIC
Wessex Resolutions CIC (WRCIC) works in partnership with 20 local authorities, delivering loans to tackle financial exclusion and helping people requiring essential home improvements. The impact of poor housing on health is well evidenced, and 73% of WRCIC clients report improvements to their overall health, delivering savings to society of £383,000. Since 2009, WRCIC has made 514 loans for Heating Related improvements, which has saved the NHS £8.8m annually.
Responsible Finance Leader Award
Sean Dennis (Lets Do Business Finance)
Sean Dennis has been a leading player in the Responsible Finance field for 15 years. In 2001, Sean played an instrumental role in establishing Capitalise Business Support which has become the leading enterprise lender in the South East. He joined Responsible Finance in 2012 to set up funding schemes for the sector including the Regional Growth Fund programme. Since returning to lead CBS in 2015, it has become operationally self-sustaining, growing its loan book and areas of operation.
Lisa Greenhalgh (Merseyside Special Investment Fund)
Lisa Greenhalgh joined Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF) in 2003 and progressed within the organisation to become CEO in 2017. Lisa has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of MSIF and drive forward its success. She is well known within the Liverpool City Region and is an inspirational leader to her team of 16. She recently won the Merseyside Business Woman of the Year award, and is in NatWest’s National Wise100 list, which recognises influential women in social innovation.
Eric Munro (RBS)
Eric Munro has been a leader, supporter and driver of the social investment agenda in Scotland for many years. Generous with his time and knowledge, Eric has mentored and financed many organisations through Social and Community Capital. He sits on the boards of several social investment organisations and is part of the advisory board for Community Shares Scotland and the Development Trust Association Scotland.
Steve Walker (ART Business Loans)
Steve Walker is a passionate champion of access to finance for enterprise. He was instrumental in the establishment of ART Business Loans and the Community Development Finance sector in the UK in 1997, with involvement in their development ever since. Warm-hearted, enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable about the sector, Steve always willing to share his expertise. It is a testament to Steve’s leadership that four of the seven staff team at ART have worked at ART for over 10 years.
Outstanding Loan Officer Award
Nicola Cosgrove (DSL Business Finance)
Nicola Cosgrove joined DSL Business Finance in 2008. Her commitment, hard work and knowledge has gained the respect of clients, colleagues and partners. Nicola is driven by doing the best she can to understand her clients and to help them become investment ready. Nicola frequently spends extra time with a client who she believes has a reasonable business idea and personal potential but who struggles to articulate this.
Paul Humphray (Merseyside Special Investment Fund)
Paul Humphray has been a key part of MSIF’s investment team for 15 years. He works on MSIF's Loan Funds assessing and recommending loans to SMEs across the Liverpool City Region and beyond. Paul has recently managed and committed the full £5m of the MSIF High Growth Business Investment Programme. Paul’s clients always speak highly of him, his work and his continued support. He is a loan officer that always goes the extra mile to help those he is working with.
Xiao Liu (Business Finance Solutions)
Xiao Liu joined Business Finance Solutions (BFS) as a Loan Officer in September 2016 and has helped nearly 200 entrepreneurs secure funding to start or grow their businesses. Xiao has shown commitment to her work and high quality of customer service, and her efforts have been recognised by colleagues and clients. Putting clients’ needs at the heart of what she does, Xiao takes time to understand their needs, tailoring her approach to each individual and organisation.
Alex Mearns (Business Finance Solutions)
Alex Mearns has had a busy year at Business Finance Solutions (BFS). As well as appearing on the BBC documentary ‘A Matter of Life and Debt’, he was promoted to manage a team of six delivering Start Up Loans. Alex has supervised over £3m of lending and has had direct involvement with the creation of over 200 jobs in the first six months of the year. Alex consistently receives positive feedback from clients of BFS.