Founded in 2016 by then 23-year-old George Melhuish, this West Bromwich based company supports over 30,000 customers. Safe Fence is a manufacturer, hirer, distributor and installer of non-mechanical construction site plant. Expansion into areas such as groundworks, scaffolding and material handling equipment has seen sales more than double in two years, reaching £13.8m in 2021.
‘As an entrepreneur my job is to be a hype-man and recruiter’
George Melhuish
Founder - Safe Fence
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The twins set to shake up the cosmetics industry
Beijing-born twins Jake Xu and Shane Carnell-Xu launched this men’s cosmetics brand in 2019 after raising funds from angel investors Sally Preston and Neil Mather of Kiddylicious, the children’s snack business. Bestsellers in Shakeup’s skincare and makeup range include moisturiser, under eye concealer and face masks. The brand is stocked by national and overseas retailers, such as Harvey Nichols, Superdrug and Australia’s Myer, and it recently launched its new Face 4ward range in China. The Xu brothers previously set up READY, a creative agency based in Bath.
Jake Xu & Shane Xin Carnell-Xu
Shakeup Cosmetics
As a founder you have to juggle ‘doing the job’ and being the CEO
Steven co-founded Lawrence Stephens 25 years ago with two friends Stephen Messias and Lawrence Kelly. The business has since grown from a team of 3 to over 150. As a proud partner of the FEBE Growth 10, Steven shares how the founder spirit has helped him build one of the fastest growing law firms in the UK.
Steven Bernstein
Founder - Lawrence Stephens
We made millions from Spandex costumes…then we nearly lost it all
MorphCostumes is an online fancy dress costume retailer founded in 2009 by brothers Ali and Fraser Smeaton and their flatmate Gregor Lawson. The company started as a small online business selling full-body skintight costumes – commonly referred to as Morphsuits, after the founders noticed their popularity at a stag do. In 2014, the Edinburgh-based company […]
Fraser Smeaton
Co-founder, Morphsuits
8 Explosive Lessons from a £200m Journey
Entrepreneurial journeys don’t come much wilder. In March 2021, Juliet Barratt watched through tear-filled eyes as Cadbury owner Mondelez International bought the business she’d co-launched in her spare bedroom 11 years ago. The deal was reportedly worth £200m. So why the tears? Quite simply because Grenade was her baby…
JULIET BARRATT
CO-FOUNDER - GRENADE
The story of how one business has grabbed the gin sector by the juniper berries and given it an almighty shake
Any discerning gin drinkers will already know the compelling Warner’s Gin story. Corporate behemoths would pay a fortune to have that amount of authenticity. But the funny thing about authenticity is this: it can’t be bought or copied. If you try to do either of those things, guess what? It disappears faster than your Friday night G’n’T…
Tom Warner and Tina Warner-keogh
Co-Founders - Warner’s Gin
How we blagged meetings with buyers to build our brand
Husband and wife team Manav and Rimi Thapar started LoveRaw: a plant based chocolate brand with £600 and a food processor. Today, the confectionery is sold in 20 countries, and stockists include Asda, Coop and WH Smith. LoveRaw secured £2m of funding from investor Blue Horizon Ventures in 2020, after rejecting an offer in the BBC’s Dragons’ Den.
Rimi & Manav Thapar
Co-founders - LoveRaw