Winners of The Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards Unveiled

Last night, more than 1,500 people came together to celebrate the innovation, success and resilience of British business at The Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2022, which recognise excellence in companies of every size across the UK.

We were the proud sponsor of The LDC Entrepreneur of the Year Award – a category which focuses on the contribution of a dynamic, creative and visionary leader – and are thrilled to announce that Lizzie Carter, Founder of Only Curls, is this year’s winner.

Lizzie founded the London-based haircare brand in 2016 and it is already well on its way to becoming the UK’s most loved curly hair brand. She has made it her mission to encourage curly haired people to ditch the chemicals and forget the straighteners as she wants to inspire others to embrace their natural curls.

In just six years, Lizzie has transformed Only Curls from a kitchen table start-up into a multi-million-pound company. Her customer-first approach has won the business an army of loyal fans, and her focus on innovation has enabled Only Curls to fill a gap in the market for products that enhance and define curls, without weighing them down.

We would also like to congratulate a number of former LDC portfolio companies on their award wins.

IT specialist Littlefish won The Lloyds Bank Mid-Market Business of the Year Award. We invested for a minority share in the Nottingham-based IT services provider in 2019 and over the following three years the business almost doubled revenues and more than doubled its headcount.

Bicester-based Aker Systems won The Scale Up Business of the Year Award. We invested in the business in 2020 and helped it to grow by more than 50% during our partnership.

Fever-Tree won The Department for International Trade Exporter of the Year Award. In 2013, we backed Tim Warrillow and Charles Rolls to help the business cement its position as the leader in the premium mixers market. Over the next 18 months, Fever-Tree considerably expanded its operations overseas and in 2014 underwent a hugely successful listing on AIM.

In addition to the successes of our former portfolio businesses, it was also a fantastic night for many of our LDC Top 50 alumni who were recognised in the following categories.

Sinewave won The Lloyds Bank Sustainable Business of the Year Award and was highly commended in The Lloyds Bank Small to Medium Sized Business of the Year category; BigChange won The Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines Business Enabler of the Year Award, a category in which Route 101 was named highly commended; Reflex Vehicle Hire won The ESG Champion of the Year Award; Redkite was highly commended in The Scale Up Business of the Year category; and finally Endomag highly commended in The Technology Innovation category

LDC extends its congratulations to all of the companies and individuals that won awards or were finalists at The Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2022. You can view the full list of winners here.