Consumer Business of the Year 2018: Meet the finalists

Fancy Dress Worldwide

Us Brits love dressing up, and judging by the success of Fancy Dress Worldwide, so does everyone else… The company has grown from a start-up into a “multi-million-pound empire”, with 380,000 orders in 85 countries. This has been feasible thanks to its bespoke software solutions, which has used barcode scanners in the firm’s warehouse, creating a one-click buying portal for all customers based on an algorithm.

Learn more about Fancy Dress Worldwide and cast your People’s Champion vote here

Craft Gin Club

It’s been a few years since gin saw its large-scale revival and Craft Gin Clubs – the service that helps discerning consumers discover the best premium craft gins, food & drink products in the comfort of their home – is still going strong. In turn it’s also helping great producers sell more product more easily with comprehensive, content-driven marketing campaigns and access to invaluable data on what consumers think about their products.

Learn more about Craft Gin Club and cast your People’s Champion vote here

Laundryheap

A flexible and convenient solution for time-strapped consumers, Laundryheap provides on-demand laundry and dry-cleaning services throughout London, Birmingham, Manchester, Coventry, Amsterdam, Dublin, Boston, Dubai and Sharjah. Whilst there are a few competitors, the business claims to be the only major on-demand laundry company that offers collection and delivery within 24 hours as a standard service at no extra charges.

Learn more about Laundryheap and cast your People’s Champion vote here

ECHO

On a mission to make prescriptions painless, Echo is a free and secure app that lets patients order NHS prescriptions and get medication delivered to their door after giving the name of their GP and explaining what they need. It’s a vital service: medication non-adherence is a major public health issue, with between a third and half of all medication in the UK not properly taken. There are no hidden costs for patients and Echo takes their data protection and privacy very seriously.

Learn more about ECHO and cast your People’s Champion vote here

LovetheSales

Every day, between 30% and 50% of all retail products are discounted. If unsold they can go to landfill, or tie up warehouse space. LovetheSales aggregates these offers to make it easy for consumers to browse, shop and buy products at the best price. The website aggregates from more than 850 major retailers, allowing them to sell off unwanted goods and avoid looking like they are continuously on sale (which teaches loyal customers to wait).

Learn more about LovetheSales and cast your People’s Champion vote here

Lucy and Yak

Chris Renwick and Lucy Greenwood quit their day jobs to go travelling in 2014. They realised that working for other people wasn’t working for them and, upon returning home, started selling vintage clothes. It was then they realised that “ethical” clothes were often boring and badly marketed. They created Lucy and Yak to solve this problem – an ethical clothing brand that focuses on dungarees but now sells trousers, dresses, sweatshirts, socks and more.

Learn more about Lucy & Yak and cast your People’s Champion vote here

Snaffling Pig

Snaffling Pig was founded by Nick Coleman, CEO, on the back of a £500 bet taken in a pub whilst playing darts with his dad. What if he could transform the humble pork scratching into an indulgent, luxury snack? Today, Snaffling Pig ships 600 orders a day and has nine Great Taste awards. As well as being available in 2,000 pubs and wholesalers across the country, its products are stocked in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Selfridges, Fenwick.

Learn more about Snaffling Pig and cast your People’s Champion vote here

Habito

The lack of adequate tech in the mortgage market is estimated to cost the quarter of people who suffer from a ‘mortgage mismatch’ an average of £294 a year. Using tech to put consumer needs first, Habito is the free online mortgage broker that analyses over 20,000 mortgage products across 90 lenders in real-time, to identify the best mortgage based on an individual’s circumstances.

Learn more about Habito and cast your People’s Champion vote here