A huge congratulations are in order for Fashion Enter, sister company to FashionCapital and the FTA, after being named as SME of the year at the second annual London Evening Standard Business Awards, in association with HSBC and supported by Ballymore. The winners were announced at an exclusive awards dinner held last night (29th June) at the Banqueting House, Whitehall.
The awards recognise companies and individuals who have stood out for achieving high standards and excellence in the past year. More specifically for the company entries, these were judged on business, financial and commercial activities in the 12 months since the 2016 Evening Standard Business Awards. This year’s keynote speech was given by Facebook VP EMEA Nicola Mendelsohn who said shared insights on the UK and London as a place to build business, Facebook’s support of UK business on its platform, and the power of connection and community. George Osborne, Editor of The London Evening Standard, opened the evening with a welcome address. He co-hosted the proceedings alongside Kirsty Wark, Presenter of Newsnight, and the evening included a networking session, dinner and a drinks reception.
George Osborne, Editor of The London Evening Standard, said last night: “The Evening Standard has a great history of covering business and we are proud to focus on this with our second Business Awards. We have changed some of the sectors this year to reflect developments in London’s fast-moving economy and also to salute those who are working towards the future as Brexit approaches.”
HSBC, sponsor of The London Evening Standard Business Awards, said: “As one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations and serving over 1 million UK businesses, we are proud to sponsor the awards in recognition of flourishing and innovative business. Our congratulations to the winners.”
Speaking after her keynote speech, Nicola Mendelsohn, VP EMEA at Facebook, said: “At Facebook we support a broad-spectrum of businesses across the UK and London business communities, from established multi-national corporations to the newest start-ups, and we’ve seen first-hand how innovative, growing companies create real economic impact. The businesses that have been recognised in this year’s awards are testament to British entrepreneurship and innovation. Congratulations to the winners, and to The Evening Standard for providing this platform to celebrate business success.”
Speaking at the award ceremony, Jenny Holloway (pictured right with Jenni Sutton), CEO, Fashion Enter, said: “We we’re sitting at the back of the stage so we thought position alone we had no chance of winning last night! We also had Hotel Chocolat as a short listed category and I’ve met the owner and he is a real entrepreneur with a wow factor! I actually didn’t believe that called out our name until Jenni said that it was us! So to every single person at Fashion Enter thank you – the best team I’ve ever worked with. To all of our aspiring learners reach for the stars – dreams do come true. Winning the award really highlights the importance of our teaching too…we want our learners to realise that they can learn the skills that will make their businesses succeed. Asos.com, thank the Good Lord you believed in us 8 years ago, HSBC you didn’t give up on us when we have had our sticky moments and our fabulous suppliers – you are awesome.”
In full, the award winners are:
- Tech SME of the year: POD Point
- Tech company of the year: ARM
- SME of the year: Fashion Enter
- Property company of the year: Battersea Power Station Development Company
- Takeover of the year: Micro Focus – (for its deal with Hewlett Packard Enterprise)
- Media business of the year: Framestore
- Financial services company of the year: Metro Bank
- Consumer business of the year: MATCHESFASHION.COM
- Brexporter of the year: ASOS
- Corporate citizen of the year: Costa Coffee
- Entrepreneur of the year: Dumi Oburota
- Business of the year: Aviva
- Personality of the year: Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money