Starting Local – Disrupting Global

In celebration of Local Business Week, Charlotte Keenan, head of our Office of Corporate Engagement in EMEA, takes us on a journey around the UK to meet the innovative local businesses from 10,000 Small Businesses that are disrupting global markets with their ideas.

This week, we are celebrating Local Business Week, and recognizing some of the amazing local businesses all around the country that are driving forward the UK economy across every sector and in every region. Through 10,000 Small Businesses UK, we support high-potential small businesses as they grow and develop – creating new jobs and increased revenues for their local communities. We took a look at some of the best graduates from the programme who are innovating and disrupting global markets from towns and cities across the UK.

In Manchester’s next trendy digital and creative hub at One Central Park, Susanna Lawson, Director of OneFile, is disrupting the online training market, and received a 2017 Queen’s Award for Innovation in recognition for her software that makes learning and development in businesses simple.

In Southampton University’s Science Park, Sandra Sassow, founder of SEaB Energy, is making a splash in the sustainable power market, with her innovative waste-to-energy solutions. Since delivering the first system to an NHS hospital in 2009, she has gone on to sign a £1bn contract to provide the patented product to India, taking the UK’s research and development global.

On dinner tables and in meeting rooms across the country, Belu Water is reducing the impact of bottled water on the environment. Karen Lynch, the CEO, was also recognized with a 2017 Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development, highlighting her pioneering reductions in her water bottle’s CO2 emissions, and on top of this, Belu donates all profits to WaterAid – contributing over £2.2m to the charity since 2011.

In the heart of Leicester, Byron Dixon runs global odour-fighting business Micro-fresh. What started as a local chemical manufacturer, with a product that fights odour on everyday items like shoes and kitchen surfaces, quickly became an international company with multiple offices in China, India and the US. Today, the business is still headquartered in Leicester, relying on home-grown talent to continue growing.

Daniel Mailly is founder and MD of London and Cheshire-based business Global Support Services, which was recently named one of the Financial Times 1,000 fastest growing companies in Europe. With growth of over 297% since 2012, Global Support Services offers security through a whole range of services, from trained protection dogs and explosive tracking, to surveillance drones and specific training.

Named one of the “15 Coolest Tech Companies” in the North alongside Google and Rockstar North, is Ed Cox’s Reason Digital. Ed’s business builds partnerships between charities, social enterprises and companies to develop innovative and impactful digital products and services to tackle social issues such as violent crime, drug and alcohol addiction, and the diseases that define our times.

From her offices in the New Forest, Niamh Barker, MD and founder of The Travelwrap Company, which takes Scottish Cashmere global, is balancing work and family, providing her employees flexible working hours so they can juggle being a parent and having a career. Niamh’s product is shipped out from her rural office to countries all over the world, and she uses social media advertising to get to know her customers from all corners of the world.

In every corner of the UK, these entrepreneurs are innovating, leading and disrupting the markets they work in, and are flying the flag of local businesses as they do so.