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La Favorita Delivered Ready to Expand

By Jessie Wilkens on January 2, 2015 in

pizzaIf you love pizza, you just might want to keep an eye on the La Favorita Delivered company. This chain, backed by financier Jon Moulton, is planning to raise £400,000 with crowdfunding to expand into Scotland and the rest of the UK.

The chain currently has four branches. They are opening two in Glasgow next year and they hope to have 50 outlets in the UK within the next five years. Interestingly, between 5 and 10% of the company is available for investors, as they want to raise between £200,000 and £400,000 from investors with Investing Zone. Moulton has personally committed £50,000. As two friends Matt Peaks and Andrew Studio, frequenting the restaurant said, “It’s great pizza and there is no reason that it wouldn’t do well in other locations.” Another patron, Toni Amber agreed. “A good investment is a good investment. I’d actually like to know more. This might be something worth doing.”

As La Favorita’s chief executive, Kenny Scott, said, its vision is to be “the best, largest and most trusted pizza delivery company in the UK, building on our reputation of producing only a premium product.”

And if customer comments like those of Matt and Andrew are a good indicator, they just might get there. “It’s an exciting idea,” said Amber.

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Winner of the Great British Entrepreneur of the Year Award

By Jessie Wilkens on November 25, 2014 in
Beer Sampler picture by Quinn Dombrowski Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

Beer Sampler picture by Quinn Dombrowski
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

It’s always fun to hear about the guy making ice cream or pizza from his garage who has gone on to great things. James Watt is one of them. Co-founder of BrewDog, the Scottish craft beer company that started making ale out of the back of a van and delivering it to local markets in 2007, just hit the jackpot.

He won the Great British Entrepreneur of the Year award last week. With 314 employees, 24 BrewDog bars and £4.25 million raised last year through crowdfunding, Watt is certainly on his way.

The event was NatWest-sponsored and held at the former Billingsgate fish market in the City of London. Other winners included Shane Lake, who co-founded the website hungryhouse and Darren Westlake who started the online investing business Crowdcube.

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Rags to Riches Business Entrepreneurs

By Jessie Wilkens on November 2, 2014 in

The Daily Mail recently presented a list of the top 25 rags-to-riches stories. These stories are always inspirational, showing that you really can make a success of yourself even if you come from very little. Here is a peek at the top four business people.

  1. Sir Philip Green: He is worth £3.88billion and started with only £20,000. He imported jeans from the Far East to sell to retailers in London and went on to own the Arcadia Group.
  2. Mike Ashley: He’s worth £3.75billion and he started with just £10,000. He left school at 16 and turned to coaching squash. He opened his first Sport & Ski shop in Maidenhead and then started Sports Direct with a modest loan.
  3. Sir Richard Branson: He’s worth £3.6billion and started, believe it or not, with £300. At 16 he created a student magazine and then founded the mail-order record company. He opened Virgin Records on London’s Oxford Street and the rest is history.
  4. Peter Hargreaves CBE is worth £2.39billion and he started with £500. He started his investment broker business with Stephen Lansdown from a spare bedroom with only a small start up. In 2007, the company was floated on the London stock market valued at £800million and it’s now valued at £4.5billion.
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Marks & Spencer Opens Baby Department

By Jessie Wilkens on October 7, 2014 in

babyMarks & Spencer is launching a new department – and new parents will want to take notice. They are trying to grab market shares from rivals like Mothercare. This week, they will begin trading from their dedicated M&S Baby areas in nine of their stores and will be starting an online push as well.

They have eight brands that they will be selling including Avent, Baby Bjorn and others.

As M&S childrenswear director Stephani Chen said, “We already have a very strong clothing offer for toddlers, but this is about extending that to a more comprehensive range for parents and mums-to-be. This is a trial and we could fairly quickly roll it out to more stores.”

The offerings will include maternity clothing and nursery furniture. As Chen said, “There is a bit of a baby boom and this is an opportunity for us to create a nursery destination in store and online.”

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Get Your Design on the New £1 Coin

By Jessie Wilkens on September 14, 2014 in

New pound coinHere is a new money-making idea. George Osborne just launched a competition for the public to design what will appear on the tails of the new 12-sided £1 coin. The winner will get to have his design on the coin and will have a £10,000 prize.

Designers are being asked to show what Britain means and to draw on the qualities and quirks that make the nation unique. The designs can’t include a recognizable likeness of a known person. The word “one pound” does have to appear in the design.

Towards the end of the competition, some three dimensional models will be made of those that are shortlisted. In addition to getting their design on the newest coin, the winner will be asked to visit The Royal Mint.

All entries have to be submitted by October 30, 2014 and will only be accepted on an official submission form. As George Osborne said, “Today we’re asking people across the UK to help us design the new £1 coin. Think about your favourite landmark, or a great British achievement or a symbol from our Islands’ story. The winning design will be in millions of people’s pockets and purses. It’ll be heads you win; tails, it’s your design.”

Adam Lawrence, the chief executive of The Royal Mint, added “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to support Her Majesty’s Treasury and work on such an exciting project, which will not only modernise the current £1 coin for the first time in thirty years but also potentially change the way that coins are made in the future.”

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Watch for Bubbleology Fun Coming to the US

By Jessie Wilkens on August 24, 2014 in

bubbleologyIf you haven’t heard of bubble tea, you aren’t alone. But Assad Khan, 35, would like to make sure that you hear about it..and soon. This brightly colored drink has tapioca “pearls” inside of it. In Asia, the tea is a hit, with over 100,000 outlets that stoke this concoction. At the moment, in America, there are only 3000 that have it.

Khan opened his first shop in the UK in 2011 in Soho, central London. And his company, Bubbleology, has a £2million annual turnover.

Bubble tea comes from Taiwan where it was invented in the early 1980s. At Bubbleology, they use a base of green tea, black/red tea or white tea and have natural fruit flavorings. They also have milk teas.

Now, Khan is hoping to spread this love to the States. As he said, “It is drunk all over the world, but there is no global leader. Where is the Starbucks?”

At the moment he has 70 staff at outlets around England, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia, Switzerland and Kuwait. As he said, “We are doing a big push in the US. There are just 3,000 outlets that stock it in the US, but 100,000 in Asia. Bubble tea is big.”

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Pink Boutique Spreads the Love

By Jessie Wilkens on August 3, 2014 in

Alice Blackie, 25, who sells over 2000 dresses a day started out her business on a whim. She had three jobs to pay her mortgage that she bought when she was 21. She started selling dresses through eBay to make more money. As she said, “I ended up running to the post office in my lunch break with palpitations trying to get 40 parcels away. It got so busy my mum said I should start a business.”

She calculated that if she sold 250 dresses a month she could quit her other jobs. After six months of selling dresses, she got her own website and Pink Boutique was born.

Now, she has a staff of 40, including a social media team of five. She sells 2000 dresses a day. She exports to 50 countries and says that 95% of her sales come from social media.

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Imbibery London Hits the Scene

By Jessie Wilkens on July 3, 2014 in

bottles-newIf you haven’t met the Juice Girls yet, it might be time to do so. Meryl Zises and Lily Rogath from New York are hitting the London scene, and bringing their cold pressed juices from their company Imbibery London with them.

Realizing there was a gap in the British market for their business, the girls set out to create cold pressed juices that would line the supermarket and health-food store shelves. After six months of testing sessions in the kitchen, the girls came up with their final recipes.

These recipes include Cacao Mylk (made up of cashew, cacao, coconut oil, vanilla, date, sea salt), Phyto –(made up of spinach, cucumber, celery, parsley, lemon, lime) and Hot Shot, among others (made up of ginger, lemon, cayenne pepper and water).

Their prices are hefty, but followers don’t seem to mind. They cost £3.50 for a shot and up to £14 for a 500ml juice. As much as two to three kilos of raw fruit and veg are used in a 500ml bottle, depending on the juice.

They also offer the ever-trendy cleansing options, where people drink only juice and water for 1-3 days. Their cleanse runs £85 a day.

Meryl says that people aren’t put off by their prices. As she explains, “People definitely realise they get what they pay for and the second they taste our juice, they realise it’s special. We haven’t received pushback because of our pricing. Imbibery’s produce is the best and we don’t do anything to cut corners and in that way we are a luxury good.”

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The Real Fight Group: A London Success Story

By Jessie Wilkens on June 15, 2014 in

boxingAlan Lacey has an amazing story to tell. When he was 44, in an attempt to stop smoking, he picked up boxing. And the rest is history. Today, he has built up one of the most successful commercial boxing businesses in the UK, the Real Fight Club.

The Real Fight Club is a white collar boxing enterprise that focuses on city workers who have no prior experience in the ring. The way that it works, as described by the Daily Mail, is that “Mortgage brokers, investment bankers and City accountants enroll in a two-to-three-month intensive training regime, culminating in an actual fight at a charity boxing event. Participants sell tickets to colleagues, friends and family and raise money for their chosen charity.”

As Lacey dispels the misnomers about boxing, he says, “Boxing is not just about hitting people. It’s about discipline, about deception. And it’s a great stress reliever. The perceived danger comes from getting repeatedly hit in the head, but that really only happens if you’re in the ring every day. For most people that’s not the case. Injury-wise, boxing is right down the bottom of the list of sports.

It’s a question of creating a safe, enjoyable environment to teach a new skill and get fit – because God knows this country has an obesity problem. And you don’t need huge resources to box. Don’t need a lot of investment or infrastructure.”

Lacey took a trip to New York to see one of these white collar boxing programs and was hooked. In the year 2000, he funded the Real Fight Club and opened his own gym in London. The concept became a great success with many City professionals finding it as the perfect release from their daily pressures. Today, The Real Fight Club has about 100 events in locations around London.

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Camping Opportunities with Pitchup.com

By Jessie Wilkens on May 20, 2014 in

pitchupWith the sun starting to shine and summer approaching, entrepreneur Dan Yates is ready to go. Creator of Pitchup.com, Yates is ready for the summer rush. Holiday makers can select among 5000 camping and caravan sites in England and across the Continent. As Yates said, “The weather definitely made a difference. Camping and caravanning is often a  last-minute choice, so we make it really easy for people to book online or via their smartphones.”

Yates used to work at Lastminute.com before setting up his own site in 2009. He saw a need for campers to have a way to book their vacations. Along with large operators – Bourne Leisure, Parkdean, Park Resorts and Park Holidays – he has also attracted individual campsite operators.

They expect 500,000 people to book with Pitchup this year which is more than double the number they had last year. As Yates said, “The industry was given a great boost during the recession, when people decided to holiday in the UK, and that ‘staycation’ effect has remained.”

“Now there’s a huge choice, from traditional tents and caravans to teepees, yurts, wigwams and pods, and that has helped bring in people who wouldn’t even have tried camping before.”

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