UK’S SMARTEST 100 SMALL BUSINESSES UNVEILED –
Strider Bike UK, NAMED AS A WINNER! @Striderbikeuk
Smarta.com and O2 present the UK’s most dynamic and innovative small businesses
Strider Bike UK, the cycling shop for the under 7’s.
- The competition: designer light bulbs, a non-spill potty, erotic novels where the reader stars, a pillow for long-distance lovers, virtual gifts and non-tooth pulling toffee
- Essential stats: 45% of winners are female with an overall average age of just 33. Revenues total £65,000,000 with an average turnover of £692,000
- Deborah’s in! Dragons’ Den’s Deborah Meaden lauds ‘brilliant businesses run by people who deserve our recognition and support’.
- Vote now: voting is now under way for the £10,000 O2 Smarta 100 Business of the Year
Smarta.com and O2 have today named Strider Bike UK as a winner of the 2011 Smarta 100 awards: its collection of the UK’s savviest, enterprising, most disruptive small businesses.
Voting is now under way to find the overall O2 Smarta 100 Business of the Year, winning £10,000 courtesy of O2.
This year’s Smarta 100 provides a fascinating snapshot of UK small business today: a cross-section of ingenious new ideas, individuals seeking self-employment after redundancy, the innovators of the cloud and crowd and the fast-growth big businesses of tomorrow.
Strider Bike UK specialise in getting young children to learn to ride on two wheels safely from the start without ever needing stabilisers. Stocking a full range the amazing Strider PREbike, Giro and Bell cycling helmets and all manner of related accessories they are truly a one stop shop. They have proven themselves to be really up for the challenge of getting children to get outside and exercise, whilst making the whole process a great deal of fun and safe!
Beyond this, there are 99 other businesses, all battling it out for the title of O2 Smarta 100 Business of the Year. From the weird and wonderful world of non-spill potties, pillows for long-distance lovers and non-tooth pulling toffee, to market changers like crowd-powered wine dealer Naked Wines, parcel innovator MyParcelDelivery.com and fast-growing retailer WedgeWelly, innovation and entrepreneurship are alive and well in Britain.
Many of this year’s winners have triumphed through adversity. Take Camille Johnson, who set up Pink Ribbon Lingerie after her mother’s experiences struggling to find attractive mastectomy lingerie. Or Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes, who used their £20,000 redundancy pay-off from Woolworths to set up toy retailer Toy Barnhaus, now turning over £1.4million from three stores.
Proving the crucial role small businesses have to play in the future recovery of the UK economy, Smarta 100 revenues total over £65,000,000 with an average turnover of £692,000. They’re contributing more to the nation’s coffers than they’re borrowing too, with over half (51%) entirely self-funded.
On average, they are three years and two months old. They employ a total of 740 people, with 9% employing a staff of more than 20. Smarta 100 businesses tend to be running lean operations however, with a growing shift to virtual teams and networks of freelancers – 79% employ fewer than 10 people and 68% fewer than five.
The Smarta 100 also tells us about the people behind Britain’s brightest small businesses. This year’s winners are 55% male, 45% female, aged between 18 and 52 with an average of 33.
Commenting on their inclusion in the Smarta 100, Strider Bike UK, Karen Wood said:
“We are delighted to be included in such a prestigious list! This award recognises all the hard work my family have put in and it’s great to get recognition for it. Our children are the test riders and demonstrators and my husband has been our warehouse manager alongside his own job. I couldn’t have done this without them. The bikes are a fabulous product and credit also has to go to the bike’s designer Ryan McFarland of Strider Sports Inc.”
Commenting on this year’s Smarta 100 winners, Dragons’ Den star and Smarta board member Deborah Meaden – who wasn’t part of the judging process – said:
“This year’s Smarta 100 has uncovered some superb small businesses, many of which I’ll admit I’d never heard of but have enjoyed discovering and am very much looking forward to meeting.
“What pleases me is that these awards are championing passionate and ambitious people with brilliant ideas who’ve acted on those ideas and turned them into flourishing businesses. These small businesses and individuals are hugely important and deserve our recognition and support.”
Simon Devonshire, General Manager, SMB for O2, said:
“The SMBs that have made the final shortlist are testimony to the dynamism and variety of businesses that are operating and flourishing in the UK. O2 supports young companies such as this that are looking to make a name for themselves by offering them flexible communications packages. It will be fascinating to find out which companies win the categories and the O2 Award, which will act as a springboard for future growth.”
Smarta founder Shaa Wasmund added:
“The quality of entries for this year’s Smarta 100 was ridiculously high. If anyone ever tries to tell you the UK lacks an enterprise or entrepreneurial mindset, point them to this list.
“We’re hugely proud of this year’s award winners. I’ve every confidence a significant percentage will double in size by the time we announce the 2012 winners!”
Voting for the overall O2 Smarta 100 Business of the Year is now live.
The winner will be presented with their £10,000 prize – courtesy of O2 – at The Smarta 100 Awards final on Wednesday 21st September at London’s IndigO2.
The evening will also see six special awards presented for the Smarta 100 companies deemed the best in the categories of Innovation; Technology; Social Impact; Use of Resources and Marketing. The shortlisted companies are now available to view online.
These awards will be decided by the Smarta 100 judging panel consisting of King of Shaves founder Will King, Bebo founder Michael Birch, PR guru Lynne Franks, TV’s Sarah Beeny, creator of MySingleFriend.com and Tepilo.com, Smarta’s Shaa Wasmund and O2’s Simon Devonshire.
The special awards winners will receive prizes including mentoring sessions with former Dragon Doug Richard, MOBOs founder Kanya King, an iPad2 provided by Viking and a £1,000 worth of consultancy and training courtesy of RBS Mentor.
To view the full 2011 Smarta 100 (including the special awards shortlist) and to vote for the O2 Smarta 100 business of the year, visit: www.smarta.com/100
Full list also below
Notes to editors:
About Smarta
Smarta is the UK’s largest leading news, tools and advice resource for small business owners. Smarta recently launched Smarta Business Builder, an online toolkit offering accounts, website, email, legal docs and business planning software from a single web page from £20 a month.
Smarta was founded by Shaa Wasmund and is backed by some of the UK’s top entrepreneurs, including Deborah Meaden, Theo Paphitis, Michael Birch and Sir Richard Needham. At the heart of everything we do is a commitment to encourage more people to start and grow successful businesses.
Smarta is supported by RBS, Intuit, NatWest, Viking and Mishcon de Reya.
www.smarta.com/businessbuilder
Smarta press office contact:
James Nixon
[email protected]
020 3142 6733 / 07825640350
O2 Press Office
O2
t:01753565656
e: [email protected]
Telefónica UK Limited is a leading communications company for consumers and businesses in the UK, with 22.3 million mobile customers and over 700,000 fixed broadband customers as at 31 March 2011.
Telefónica UK Limited is part of Telefónica Europe plc, a business division of Telefónica S.A. which uses O2 as its commercial brand in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic, and has 56.9 million customers across these markets.
In 2006 Telefónica Europe acquired Be, the UK fixed broadband provider, and in October 2007 O2 launched its broadband service using the Be network.
O2 is the naming rights partner of The O2, the world-class entertainment venue.
O2 employs around 11,000 people in the UK and has 450 retail stores.
In October 2010 O2 was voted the UK’s best mobile network by the readers of both What Mobile and Mobile Choice magazines.
O2 was ranked highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and fixed broadband customers according to the J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Studies 2010.
O2’s UK 2G mobile network provides voice and data services to 99% of the UK’s population.
O2’s UK 3G (HSPA+ 900 / 2100 MHz) network currently provides voice and high speed data services of up to 14.4Mbps (21Mbps in the coming months) to over 84% of the UK population.
O2 was the first UK operator to deploy a 4G/LTE trial network which has demonstrated peak speeds of over 100Mbps to a mobile device.
Telefónica Europe also owns 50% of Tesco Mobile, which operates in the UK and Ireland, and 50% of Tchibo Mobilfunk in Germany.
For further press information about O2 go to www.o2.co.uk/news
FULL LIST OF WINNERS:
Affectv
Aframe
Allingham QUADCRATE Ltd
Andrea’s Autos
Blottr
Borro
B-Tempted
Cabmania limited
Car Phone Company Limited
Charlotte Murray Ltd
Childcare.co.uk
CoaST
Coco Design
Concept Cupboard
Cook to Perfection Ltd
Creative Nerds (UK)
Croud
Crowdcube
Crowdity.com
Crunch.co.uk
Cupcake Mum
CURB
cuski international ltd
DegreeArt.com
Dooster
Ella Riley Ltd
Euphoria Cocktails Ltd
FaceFlow
Find Invest Grow Ltd
Flamingo
Gander Limited
Gnewt Cargo
goAugmented
Gower Cottage Brownies
Great Little Place Ltd.
Hiring-Hub.com
HMA Ventilation Services Ltd
Inon
Insider London
Isomob Ltd
JAM
Lady Geek
Landed Houses
Little Kickers Group
Little Riot
Lovestruck Ltd
MK ROCK Ltd
My Destination
myParcelDelivery.com
Naked Wines
navyblur.
nDreams Ltd
Neon Play Ltd
Niko B. Organic Chocolates
ParcelPoke Ltd (trading as ParcelGenie.com)
payasUgym.com
Peppersmith
Percys Ltd
Philippe Lara Ltd
Pink Ribbon Lingerie Limited
Pitcher House
Plumen
Pourty International Limited
Pyjama Drama
Raw Talent Academy
Really Simple Ideas Ltd
Righteous Living LLP
Room 92
Secret Escapes
Shelter Store LLP
SilenceBreakers
Silverthorne Partners LLP trading as TipToken
Simply Electricals
skins4things
Sophia & Matt
Splats
Startup PR
Strider Bike
Teamly Ltd
The Eleven Enterprises Limited
The Talent Shed
The Wine Pantry
Third Door
Ticket Tailor (Zimma Ltd t/a)
Toy Barnhaus
Trading4u
Trifle Creative*
Tutor2u Limited
U Star Novels
umi hotels
UnknownPrints.com
Upad.co.uk
Upcott House
Urban Coffee Company
valuemystuff.com
Weanie Beans
Wedge Welly Ltd
Yoomoot LTD
Yuforia
Zkatter Ltd
