{"id":45061,"date":"2014-10-27T12:08:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T12:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/?p=45061"},"modified":"2021-05-25T08:55:42","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T07:55:42","slug":"independent-shop-year-2014-meet-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/independent-shop-year-2014-meet-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent Shop of the Year 2014: Meet the finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You don&rsquo;t have to be a genius to work out that the traditional UK high street is in trouble, and has been for some time now.<\/p>\n<p>The rise of e-commerce has seen large retailers across the country struggle to cope, with former British institutions like Woolworth&rsquo;s and HMV meeting their demise in the face of relentless change.<\/p>\n<p>However, a happy consequence of this is that space has suddenly opened up again for excellent independent shops &ndash; ventures that successfully take on the hegemony of online (and often utilise it) with unique and unusual products, presentation and a relentless focus on quality. This award recognises the very best of these young businesses.<\/p>\n<h3>The finalists<\/h3>\n<p><b>Cocoba<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Having a passion for Belgian chocolate is one thing, but channelling this passion into an independent shop and cafe is quite another &ndash; especially when you&rsquo;re opening next to foodie mainstay John Lewis. Darren Litton&rsquo;s gamble has, happily, paid off handsomely, with his flagship Bluewater shopping centre store soon followed by a successful placing in Selfridges and healthy sales through Cocoba&rsquo;s online outlet.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/peoples-champion-finalist-cocoba\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full Cocoba profile here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Seriously Sofas<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Who doesn&rsquo;t love a good sofa? That was the thinking of husband-and-wife team Andrew and Ruth Jones when they launched their first showroom in 2011, trading in a wide selection of British-made, hand-crafted, affordable sofas and armchairs. Now operating from a much larger premises, the business has amassed trade and retail customers across the UK and Europe, the USA, Tokyo, New Zealand and more &ndash; not bad for an organically-funded venture.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/peoples-champion-finalist-seriously-sofas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full Seriously Sofas profile here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>The iOutlet <\/b><\/p>\n<p>A huge number of consumers in the UK now own smartphones, and Apple&rsquo;s iPhone has the biggest market share of all. Liam James and Matthew Green&rsquo;s Plymouth-based shop capitalises on this widespread adoption with a simple but effective business model &ndash; buying old iPhones in bulk, refurbishing them, and selling them on for a profit. Profitable from week three, the Plymouth-based shop generated revenues of &pound;2.4m last year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/peoples-champion-finalist-the-ioutlet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full iOutlet profile here.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>The judges<\/h3>\n<p>Having founded one of Britain&rsquo;s best-loved independent store chains, Laura Tenison MBE is as well-placed as any to judge this year&rsquo;s promising entrants. Other category judges include big names such as Made Simple Group founder Howard Graham and Duncan Cheatle, leading entrepreneur and founder of The Supper Club.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You don&rsquo;t have to be a genius to work out that the traditional UK high street is in trouble, and has been for some time now. The rise of e-commerce has seen large retailers across the country struggle to cope, with former British institutions like Woolworth&rsquo;s and HMV meeting their demise in the face of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91469,"featured_media":45042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finalists","category-finalists-2014"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Independent Shop of the Year 2014: Meet the finalists - Startups.co.uk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/independent-shop-year-2014-meet-finalists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Independent Shop of the Year 2014: Meet the finalists - Startups.co.uk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You don&rsquo;t have to be a genius to work out that the traditional UK high street is in trouble, and has been for some time now. 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