12 business focus
Region comes out on top in Private Business Awards
Companies from the Thames Valley featured prominently in the 2014 Private Business Awards, sponsored by PwC in association with HSBC and Numis. Winner of Family Business of the Year was The Entertainer, the Amersham headquartered toy company. Reading-based Huntswood was the winner of the High Growth Business Award, while The Knowledge Academy, from Windsor, was joint-winner in the Emerging Entrepreneur category. FoundOcean, based at Marlow, came out on top in the Private Business of the Year Award. In their fourth year, the Private Business Awards were presented at Guildhall, London. Sponsored by PwC, they attracted more than 1,000 entries from across the UK, from which 53 businesses were shortlisted
Family Business of the Year – The Entertainer
Family Business of the Year was won by The Entertainer. Husband and wife team Gary and Catherine Grant opened their first toyshop in Amersham in 1981 and have since grown to become the UK’s biggest independent toy retailer with more than 90 stores today. Their two eldest children are on the board and they ascribe much of their success to the right culture and values.
Last year was a very strong year for the business, with sales breaking through the £100 million milestone, and record profits.
The Entertainer opened a further 14 new stores in the UK – and its first international store with a franchise partner in Dubai.
The company said: “It was an honour to pick up this award on behalf of the whole Entertainer family. As a family-run business we believe that no matter how big we become as an international retailer we always retain the original vision created within the first store in Amersham – creating magic and wonder for every child.”
High Growth Business of the Year – Huntswood
High Growth Business of the Year is Reading-based professional services company Huntswood. A combination of market conditions, restructuring the management team at the right time and diversifying the client base to cover all sectors of financial services have helped the
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offerings with a realistic plan to develop the business to £100m revenue and 1,000 employees by 2018 and a determination to grow further beyond that.
Barinder & Dilshad said: “We are truly thrilled to receive such a prestigious award. It’s a great honour for the entire company to be part of this success and for every employee to feel proud to be part of The Knowledge Academy. We know we are only at the tip of the iceberg of achieving our business aspirations and this award drives us even more to reach our goals.”
Private Business of the Year – FoundOcean
Duncan Grant and Ashley Major of The Entertainer (fourth & fifth from left) with the Family Business of the Year Award
firm’s revenues increase almost five fold since 2010.
In 2013 Huntswood ranked in the top 100 Fast Track companies for both revenue and sales, and is expected to rank higher this year.
Huntswood has continued to evolve its range of propositions throughout 2013 and the resulting service offering is a key differentiator for the business ie delivering holistic solutions that address its clients’ requirements in their totality. Huntswood not only provides consulting solutions (the ‘smart minds’) but also the business processing services (the ‘clever hands’) – delivering an end-to-end solution from design-and-build through to implementation and delivery.
Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year – The Knowledge Academy
The Knowledge Academy
was joint winner of Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year. Husband and wife team Dilshad and Barinder Hothi identified a gap in the market at the bottom of the downturn and their rapidly growing business now provides IT and project management training services in over 158 countries, operating though 12 subsidiaries.
Dilshad and Barinder Hothi are truly entrepreneurial - both took a big risk leaving well-paid corporate jobs and environments and 2013 has shown impressive growth in jobs, revenue and profit. They have maintained a family culture with their employees, empowering and training them as well as providing mentoring support.
The judges said they had a clear vision for how to continue growing the business,
focused on expanding territories and THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2014
Subsea grouting firm, FoundOcean Group, was named Private Business of the Year. The company has grouted more than 600 offshore energy projects since its foundation in 1966. Its revenue growth impressed the judges, soaring almost 800% between 2010 and 2013. FoundOcean has recently opened new offices in Houston and Dubai and recently made a major contribution to the raising of the Costa Concordia, designing and constructing a 20,000 tonne artificial seabed of over 1,500 fabric formwork grout bags, onto which the wreck was rolled.
The company is constantly investing in its technology to be able to provide new services and is continuing to expand into new markets to be able to offer its products and services in all energy-producing areas of the world.
Chris Maw, PwC South East private business leader, commented: “Private businesses are the lifeblood of the economy and these awards help showcase the great companies, leaders and talent we’re lucky enough to have in the UK.“
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