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‘How we’re building a £200m business’
The Skinny Food Co sells low-calorie products such as ketchup, beef jerky, low-carb rice and ‘100% Pure Cookie Dough Skinny Peanut Butter’. It sells online through its website and via the likes of Morrisons, Spar, B&M, and Holland & Barrett. Wayne Starkey and James Whiting co-founded the Nottingham-based company in 2018 with £3,000. The pair were inspired by diabetic family members and wanted to provide healthier, less calorie-dense alternatives to well-known foods. The Skinny Food Co stocks more than 500 products and generated sales of £17.2m last year.
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‘Why all great leaders are vulnerable’
Offering exotic escapes, from jungle adventures to beach retreats and ‘big five’ safaris, this online tour operator specialises in the luxury travel market. Chief executive Nena Chaletzos founded the company after becoming frustrated with the complexity of tailor-making a luxury holiday. The company developed technology that makes the process of multi component trip building easier. Luxtripper is chaired by travel and media veteran Roger Flynn, a former BBC Ventures chief executive and Virgin commercial director, who chaired Loveholidays from 2011 to its sale in 2018. In January 2021, Luxtripper secured £1.2m of funding, bringing total investment to £3.1m.
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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.
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‘Don’t overreact to curveballs. Focus is everything’
Kubrick Group was launched to overcome the digital skills shortage by building a data, AI, and cloud technology workforce. It provides staff with training before deploying them as consultants. It has trained over 1,000 professionals and supports more than 100 clients, including BP, Morgan Stanley, and Jaguar Land Rover. The London-based company was co-founded in 2016 by managing partners Tim Smeaton and Simon Walker and is backed by private-equity firm Bowmark Capital, which invested an undisclosed sum last year. Sales have risen by more than 50% a year since 2018, reaching £29.2m in 2021.
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Entrepreneurship is a disease…but I don’t want the cure’
This technology start-up unlocks the world of whisky. It has developed proprietary image capturing software that allows mobile phones to scan and identify any bottle of the ‘golden elixir’. The Bevvy app displays a variety of information on the scanned whisky, including an estimated valuation, tasting notes, user ratings and distillery history. Its database stores details of more than 200,000 bottles, and the app is aimed at anyone from novices to collectors and distillery owners. Headquartered on the Isle of Islay, the company was set up in 2021 by leading whisky expert Laurie Black, and entrepreneur Luke Heron, co-founder of medtech firm TestCard.
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‘To be extraordinary you need to be ‘extra’ ordinary’
A wardrobe malfunction with ill-fitting tights that would not stay up inspired Brigitte Read to set up this hosiery business in 2018. Snag Tights caters for a wide range of sizes from four to 36 and offers 1,500 product lines. The online retailer has diversified into leggings, T-shirts, skirts and swimwear and has more than 2m customers in 90 countries. The Scottish-based brand is now eyeing expansion in America.