57. Urban Apothecary

Founder: Tajinder Banwait
Founded: January 2012
Website: urbanapothecarylondon.com

Beauty industry heavyweight Tajinder Banwaith started her design-focused, luxury homeware products business in 2012 from her kitchen table, hoping to inject a little indulgence and creativity into the candle and scent diffusor industry.

By 2014, Banwaith had secured listings in a number of universally recognised luxury stores as well as more mass-market retailers such as John Lewis, Bergdorf Goodman and Waitrose – proving her products appealed to both high-end and middle markets. Impressive market placements combined with the company’s growth potential and innovative products enabled the female entrepreneur’s start-up to make it into our 2014 Startups 100 index.

Now, the profitable business returns but on the merits of sheer growth power, having exceeded its turnover predictions for 2014, the creative company looks set to reach turnover of over £1m in 2015. The next 12 months will also see the business expand on its existing revenue streams, it currently sells its products through over 100 wholesale partners and its signature e-commerce site, into contract manufacturing and international distribution. The start-up also has a new candle brand planned for the upcoming year, which its ambitious female founder says will be “significantly different to Urban Apothecary”. Watch this space…