Family Business of the Year 2018: Meet the finalists

Camperdown Lane

Founded by three sisters – Michelle Nugent, Kate Hollingsworth, Sarah Nugent – Camperdown Lane is a homewares and interiors shop located in Hereford focused on finishing touches for homes including furniture, lighting, and soft furnishings. With their mum acting as mentor, manager, and retail assistant, this is a truly family affair. Camperdown Lane wants to become the go-to place in Hereford for stylish and unique home and lifestyle products and inspiration.

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

H2O Hygiene

With a baby to support and only one of them earning, husband and wife team Tom and Louise Davenport say they took a “huge gamble” in starting H2O Hygiene – a water safety specialist and provider of legionella risk assessments, monitoring contracts, water treatment and hygiene solutions, sampling and legionella control. Fortunately the move paid off and the business is now turning over millions and has contracts spanning 100 sites.

Learn more about H20 Hygiene and cast your People’s Champion vote here

myGwork

Founded by twins Adrien and Pierre Gaubert, myGwork is an online LGBT+ and allies’ business community. It was inspired by their mother, whose biggest fear was that her sons’ sexuality would prevent them finding employment. The social recruitment platform allows candidates to identify inclusive employers, network, find mentors, and hear about professional LGBT+ events and news. It has 102 partner organisations including Santander UK, EY, and PwC.

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

Royal Educare

Finding out that there was a huge demand for health and social care recruitment in their local area, Victoria and Alex Williams started employment agency Royal Educare to plug the gap. It currently has on average 100 members of agency staff and has successfully secured several permanent positions. Royal Educare was even offered grants from The Business Development Bank of Wales but turned it down due its rapid expansion and turnover.

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

The Clerkenwell Brothers

The Clerkenwell Brothers was founded by brothers Cass Horowitz and Nick Horowit, alongside flatmate Faraz Aghaei. It helps to build brands through a mixture of creating identity (logos etc.), awareness (PR, digital and out of home campaigns) and content (video, photography). Oppo, Indie Bay, Whole Foods UK and Little Moons are just some of the exciting start-ups it has worked with since starting in mid-2016.

Learn more about The Clerkenwell Brothers and cast your People’s Champion vote here

Optiat

Shocked to find that The UK sends a shocking 500,000 tonnes of coffee grounds to landfill each year, sibling duo William and Anna Brightman decided to give a new life to these leftover natural ingredients. Their solution was a range of sustainable coffee scrubs made from grounds it collects from 80 of London’s independent restaurants. Coffee helps stimulate blood flow and is effective against conditions such as acne, eczema, cellulite and stretch marks.

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

Phelps Innovations

After 40 prototypes and 18 months of research and testing in conjunction with child development specialists, sisters Catherine Dodd and Rosie Phelps-Goggin created a range of children’s cutlery to help children feed themselves independently sooner. The innovative Doddl knife, fork and spoon are perfectly shaped for a child’s hand and promote development of the ‘pincer’ grip – a key fine motor skill.

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

Brother Solutions

Fittingly, IT reseller Brother Solutions is the brain-child of two brothers Adam and Luke Franklin. Started in a 12ft x 12ft room above a friend’s warehouse, it partners with everyone from small start-ups to 10,000 staffed Blue Chip firms supplying everything from servers, switches and support contracts through to print consumables, paper and post-its.

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