Spectacular live return for Best Business Women Awards to celebrate greatest achievements of 2021

Hundreds gather from across the world for historical ceremony at Wembley – which returned to live format this October 

One of Britain’s most influential and respected women’s award ceremonies welcomed over 300 international attendees at the Hilton Wembley this October as the greatest business achievements of the year were celebrated in style. 

Returning to live format after going virtual in 2020, the seventh edition of the Best Business Women Awards paid tribute to female entrepreneurs from across the planet – acknowledging the best accomplishments during one of the most challenging years on record.

The glamorous gala was punctuated with live entertainment and saw people from Philadelphia to Spain in attendance – as 700 applicants were whittled down to 84 finalists. 

Every Gold and Silver winner was also given detailed comments by the panel of independent, trained and experienced business judges – which included Roma Bhowmick, Krishma Vaghela, Sharon Gaffney, Susan Barrett, Louise Yexley, Julie Grimes, Denise O’Leary, Lorraine Thomas and Justine Perry.

As well as showcasing and rewarding exceptional talent on a fittingly illustrious stage, the Best Business Women Awards provides a vital springboard for female entrepreneurs – putting their names on the map and boosting their profiles.

Previous winners have enjoyed significant press attention as a result of their accolades – appearing in local press and TV programmes on the BBC and Channel 4. 

Debbie Gilbert, founder of the Best Business Women Awards, said: “The past 18 months have been disruptive and uncertain. It has been difficult for every business owner in one way or another. 

“However, the sheer resilience of female entrepreneurs shone through, and this demonstrates the determination and tenacity of women in business who were not going to let a virus beat them.

“The appetite for awards has grown in recent years, with increasing recognition that these trophies offer validation for business owners. 

“Consumers will always choose award-winning businesses – and being given an accolade can be absolutely huge in terms of raising your profile.” 

Head Judge and business expert Roma Bhowmick added: “The standard of entry this year has been incredible. 

“The entries did not fail to impress and we had a difficult task shortlisting the finalists. 

“The entries really showed how much grit and determination these women have had during what has been the most challenging trading conditions for decades; I am immensely proud to recognise all winners.”

The Best Business Women Awards was one of the first ceremonies of its kind, set up seven years ago to recognise female entrepreneurs who’ve positively impacted clients, society and the local community. 

Entries have increased year on year – with over 5,000 applications since the first event back in 2015. 

Gold Winners at the most recent ceremony in London included ‘Most Inspiring Business Woman’ Kate Ball – whose Mini First Aid pitch won £50,000 backing from Sara Davies in Dragons’ Den – and ‘Best International Business Woman’ Elena Brennan, whose Philadelphia business Bus Stop Boutique is now a destination for fashionable shoes.

Other winners on the night were Olivia Mikhail – who scooped the ‘Best Business Woman in Animal Services’ award for her miniature pig business Kew Little Pigs – and ‘Best Boss’ Andrea Richards of Accounts Navigator Associates Ltd. 

The event’s return to live format in 2021 resulted in an amazing atmosphere – with the Rio Carnival group Star Dance and singers The Queen Beats lighting up the stage.

£4,500 was also raised from the annual raffle held in aid of the previous year’s Charity Champion Winner – with funds sent to the Santa Maria Foundation which supports young girls in Columbia. The organisation returned a message of thanks in the form of a video – which played at the event and proved a touching and emotional moment for the audience. 

Founder of the charity Lady Yomara Rodriguez Cardenas said: “I was so honoured and grateful for the recognition to win Charity Champion in 2020. 

“We are delighted with the sum raised, which is tremendously helpful, especially during this time.”

List of Gold Winners at the Best Business Women Awards:

●     Best Business Woman in Animal Services – Olivia Mikhail – Kew Little Pigs Ltd

●     Best Boss – Andrea Richards -Accounts Navigator Associates Limited

●     Best Business – Alexis Powell-Howard – Fortis Therapy & Training

●     Best Business Woman in Business Services -Suzanne Spicer-Spicer and Co Ltd

●     Charity Champion – Premila Puri- Be Kind Movement

●     Best Business Woman Working with Children & Families – Emily Aklan – Serenity Welfare Limited

●     Best Coach – Gitanjali Trevorrow-Seymour- High Definition You

●     Best Consumer Business – Vicky Grammatikopoulou – Vie Aesthetics

●     Best Customer Service – Vicky Grammatikopoulou – Vie Aesthetics

●     Best Business Woman in Financial Services – Sarah Siddons – Sarah Siddons Financial Planning

●     International Business Woman of the Year – Elena Brennan – BUS STOP Boutique LLC ( based in Philadelphia) 

●     Best Business Woman in Legal Services – Sarah Goulbourne -Gunnercooke LLP

●     Best Business Woman in Marketing and PR – Siobhan Stirling -Sharp Minds Communications

●     Most Inspiring Business Woman 2021 – Kate Ball -Mini First Aid 

●     Best New Business – Tonia Galati -TG Consulting Ltd 

●     Best Product – Monika Ludwiczak & Kintija Belska -Everlasting Brows

View the full list of Gold and Silver Winners at the Best Business Women Awards online. 

The Best Business Women Awards will reopen for applications in February 2022.

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The growth of non-executive support for companies, especially in the SME space has grown significantly in the UK in recent years. Some reports suggest there are now more than twice the number of non-executive directors sitting in UK boardrooms than there were just a decade ago.

One company that has done much to promote the use of non-executive directors is Virtualnonexecs.com; a UK based community of NEDs who work with over 20,000 companies to help them scale and grow.  Founder and CEO Ian Wright says “The most prohibitive thing for SMEs when considering a non-executive hire is not the incoming NED’s fees but rather the tens of thousands of pounds required by head-hunters to find them!”

Wright, credited with building one of the first free, open and searchable non-executive director websites back in 2012 says, “By removing the heavy recruiter fee, interaction with the non-executive community increases and by adding significant expertise and hindsight to a board, CEOs see an almost immediate improvement in their businesses performance”.

Virtualnonexecs.com was founded in 2019 as “The UK’s only peer-2-peer non-executive director community” with a focus on the SME market.  In October, it announced that they had hit a milestone of 12,000 active members.
But the story doesn’t end there.  Wright wants to expand the reach of Virtualnonexecs.com and intends to open an office in New York in Q1 of 2022.  He says, “I have built a significant number of high-level contacts in New York over many years and it seems a logical next step to take what we do across the pond.  There is a huge appetite for our service in the US and we already have almost one thousand members in America.”

But what drives this ambition?

He goes on to tell us, “When I sold my first company a decade ago, I saw first-hand the value well-connected NEDs can have on a business.  They bring a wealth of experience, knowledge and connections that my business, back then, simply could not have afforded in an executive capacity.  Non-Executives are often a fraction of the cost of their executive counterparts and whilst they do a very different job, non-executives can have huge material impact, especially if the founder has an eye on their eventual exit.”

Transaction rich source of data

He tells us that the non-executive market is one of the most “active and interesting” arenas for any corporate finance focused business.  “Why do companies hire non-executives?  In short, there is a corporate governance angle, sure.  But the vast majority are transaction orientated; they are founders who are building teams to take the business through various stages of growth and potentially IPO, trade sale or MBO.  It is why the Private Equity and VC communities are so interested in this space” he says.

“In the last twelve months our membership has helped thousands of businesses in their non-executive capacity.  From working with founders in tough situations to raising millions in various rounds of fund raising, they are plugged in boardrooms up and down the UK.”

The future
With 12,000 members and an active pipeline of deals hitting the Virtualnonexecs community, Wright is confident that the growth will speed up in 2022.

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Few companies have experienced the growth rate enjoyed by CM.com over the past 18 months, with the company earlier this year achieving the coveted status of European “Unicorn” and a market cap of over $1bn. 

Driving this growth is CM.com’s entrepreneurial desire to continue iterating on its product stack, whilst expanding operations across the globe, with specific focus on its regional development including the UK and Ireland.

The Dutch listed company is billed as the leader in “conversational commerce”, a phrase coined to define the modern way in which customers interact with companies through differing digital channels such as WhatsApp, SMS, Chatbots, and voicebots. CM.com’s ability to help companies streamline customer engagement has led to several new client wins, with such coveted names as American Express, Cancer Research UK, and Coca-Cola, all benefiting from CM.com’s technology to support and innovate their customer service experience.

“Every sector has been affected by the pandemic in one way or another over the past 18-months, especially businesses that sell products or services directly to consumers. Managing the huge uplift in customer enquiries relating to event cancellations, travel changes, or online orders has put enormous pressure on contact centres. Businesses are now coming to us looking for help to give their customers the ability to contact them in the way the customer wants, whilst automating as much of the engagement process as possible to reduce the workload on call centre operatives”, commented James Matthews, UK and Ireland Country Manager for CM.com.

CM.com sees the UK and Ireland market as a one of their growth areas demonstrated by continued investment to expand its London and Cork teams, with dedicated divisions now focussed on specific sectors such as Music & Live, Sport & Entertainment, Hospitality, and eCommerce. Many of these sectors have been badly hit by the recent crisis, and CM.com can play an important part in helping affected companies to build back better.

“The past two years have been the most challenging time for businesses within the live entertainment sector, with most companies completely mothballed for months whilst the lockdowns were enforced. Now, as we emerge and begin to reopen live events, we have a unique opportunity to change the status quo, integrate technology to help take the heavy lifting away from manual customer engagements, and to give customers the ability to interact with companies through their natural and preferred methods of communication”, James Matthews commented. 

There’s no doubt CM.com is investing heavily in these sectors; they were the event supporter of the recent Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix, and provided the technology infrastructure for ticketing, customer support and in-event payments. Last month they were a key sponsor of the Sport Industry Awards in London.

Having recently moved to a dedicated office overlooking St Katherine’s Dock, the UK and Ireland headcount is set to expand over the next 12 months, with a 25% uplift on top of the 50% employee headcount growth they experienced in 2020 to 2021. 

“Attracting the right talent to CM.com is vital to our continued success. Whilst some of our competitors were scaling back their operations over the past 18 months, we saw it as an opportunity to invest in people and recruited entire teams from companies that laid-off large sections of their workforce during the pandemic”, commented Matthews.

This recruitment strategy certainly puts CM.com in good stead during what is widely reported as a staffing shortage across the UK & Ireland. Demonstrating such growth metrics over the past 18 months will only serve to position CM.com as an attractive employer during what is still a relative time of uncertainty. 

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Mercedes-Benz South West have successfully expanded its workshop facility adjacent to the existing Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) Centre located in Estover, Plymouth. The family-run franchise which possesses multiple sites located across Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset, has acquired a space previously used by DPD to fulfil the expansion.

Following numerous lockdowns over the past 2 years, the need for vans has grown due to the popularity of online retail and the requirement for more courier and delivery services across the region. Following this demand Mercedes-Benz South West has seen visit numbers to the after sales divisions increase by 18% compared to last year and 22% in 2019. Mercedes-Benz South West can now accommodate that growing demand from those looking to keep their van safe and maintained following the boost in van sales. Furthermore, Mercedes-Benz South West will also utilise this new space by undertaking more Passenger Car servicing, adding more convenience for customers in the local area. Passenger Car servicing will now take place at both the Plymouth Showroom site, in Derriford, as well as the new facility in Estover, Plymouth.

Since the expansion was completed, Mercedes-Benz South West have recruited many professionals from the local area. The expansion continues to bring new job opportunities with roles nearly always available due to consistent growth. Vacancies currently being hired for include LCV Technicians (x2) and a Passenger Car Vehicle Technician.

Lee Nash, After Sales Director at Mercedes-Benz South West comments:

“We are immensely proud of what we have achieved here at our LCV Centre in Plymouth. Our team has worked extremely hard over the last 2 years to firstly support our customers since the pandemic began, and secondly to complete an expansion. This expansion enables us to offer both our Light Commercial Van customers and our Passenger Car customers more support with their servicing and maintenance needs. We’re delighted that as a result we are also offering more employment opportunity to the local area.”

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Britain’s fourth-largest chain of supermarkets, had humble beginnings, as a West Yorkshire market stall selling butter and eggs. But Morrisons has grown to 500 locations and is in the center of a 7 billion pound war between U.S. Private Equity firms.

HULT Private Capital and its Private Equity division are searching for new U.K. takeover opportunities, which has become a near-weekly occurrence in Britain, where domestic companies are gobbled up with Private Equity investment, flush with cash.  HULT Private Capital is a local London-based firm competing with other P.E. firms, which according to Pitchbook, have $1.3 trillion in unallocated capital in the industry they call dry powder.  This resource makes them eager to find bargains in the U.K., where valuations have lagged since Brexit and further hurt by the pandemic. 

According to Dealogic, P.E. has already concluded 39 bids for British companies, only two short of 2020.  John Hudson, a senior manager at HULT Private Capital, with years of U.K. Private Equity experience, stated, “this year has been unstoppable, we have seen Blackstone buying both property firm St. Modwen and the private jet service Signature Aviation.”

This was just a start; U.S.-based K.K.R. purchased infrastructure company John Lang and Carlyle nearly got the vape company Vectra, only to be beat out by Phillip Morris, the tobacco giant.

HULT Private Capital is fighting against the likes of Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, which is growing its London office beyond the current 400 employees, seeing Britain as a European gateway, and despite Brexit, so far has put $20 billion into the U.K. 

HULT Private Capital sees the U.K. as ripe with opportunity, and being a U.K.-based firm may be positioned perfectly with lawmakers worried about foreign owners willing to sell off assets.  The U.K.’s Labour Party parliament members wanted to know if Morrisons, the “critical food supplier” and its 120,000 employees, could be protected when they heard the first rumors of the Clayton, Dubilier &Rice (CD&R) bid for Morrisons.  Fearing Morrisons would be indebted and stripped of assets with staff pushed to the curb. 

Even more worrying eyebrows were raised in the defense industry when Private Equity looks to buy British firms that work with the government.  Meggitt, a supplier of military plane parts and weapon systems, is the target of two Ohio-based firms. The British government’s reaction was a statement of “active interest” at any potential takeover.  This was soon followed by Kwasi Kwarteng, the British Business Secretary, stating in a tweet, “foreign investment must not threaten our national security” and ordering the U.K. competition watchdog to look at a bid for Royal Navy Supplier, Ultra Electronics, on national security grounds.  A British firm Cobham had made the bid, but Cobham had been purchased by Advent in 2020; however, Kwarteng was a bit off in his statements because they had since split. 

The attraction of U.K. firms is quite simple, their price.  The London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 100 constituents’ price-to-earnings ratios, which is a simple valuation measure, are much lower than the price to earnings of the U.S.’s S&P500.  According to Bloomberg data, the index’s returns have lagged for over five years, with total returns in this time of only 26%.  The S&P has seen a run-up of 125% in the same five-year period.  Additionally, the pound dropped with Brexit and still has not fully recovered.  Finally, the L.S.E. is not tech-heavy which makes British stocks cheap and susceptible to takeovers.  According to HULT Private Capital’s Amrit Singh, “in recent years, the digitization of industries is where structural growth in the global market has come from.  The U.K. lacks this, with the FTSE 100 relying on companies in legacy industries that investors dislike, retail, mining and oil, and banks scarred by the crisis.”

Private equity does have a storied history in the U.K; Debenhams had been taken over by three U.S. P.E. firms in 2003.  In their three years of ownership, the investors made millions but saddled the company with over £1 billion in debt.  Debenhams finally shut its doors in May, with the debt obligations combined with the pandemic and online shopping growth being the leading causes.

Being a locally based P.E. firm HULT Private Capital is in a perfect position to avoid the governmental and business scrutiny that deals attract when bids from foreign P.E. firms are made.  The Morrisons deal has attracted the attention of major British investors who in July opposed the £6.3 billion offer from SoftBank-backed Fortress, which Morrisons’ board was ready to accept after rejecting a CD&R bid. 

Investors and politicians were concerned that Morrisons would be sold too cheaply.  Morrisons owns much of the real estate it occupies, and with tight control over its supply chain, it produces much of the products it sells, and owns the meat processing plants where it obtains some of these products as well.  This structure meant Morisons owned assets were more valuable than the stock price reflected.  Accusations of British companies being undervalued by investors was the result. 

This had a positive effect for the shareholders, with CD&R making a higher £7 billion offer which was 63% above the market value bid made two months prior.  This pleased corporate finance and stewardship head at M&G, Rupert Krefting, whose firm owns 1% of Morrisons’ shares, who stated, “We’re heading in the right direction.” The acceptance of the recent offer will be voted on in October.

This increase in private equity deals is putting public equity investors searching for the next company to be in the spotlight.  As the yanks battle for Morrisons, another supermarket Sainsbury’s, recently became the topic of speculation, with its stock price jumping 16% on the first trading day after the news was released. 

Having the inside track to British firms while also being shielded from the claims of those worried that foreigners are dismantling Britain, HULT Private Capital is in a position to provide unique opportunities to its investors. HULT’s Mark Johnson had this to say, “The time is now to grab these great British companies that are still valuable and will provide our investors with superior returns.  While the pound stays weak and L.S.E. stocks remain undervalued, the U.K. will continue to be P.E.’s main target.”

Visit www.hultprivatecapital.com for more information

For any enquiries:

Tel: +44 208 123 5164

Email: info@hultprivatecaptal.com
Address: 1 Cornhill, City of London,England, EC3V 3ND