It was a glorious night for Manchester-based eCommerce beauty business CurrentBody at the 2023 Northern Tech Awards.
The company, which was founded in 2009 by Andrew Showman and Laurence Newman, won the Judges’ Award for International Success before walking away with the big prize – the Overall Judges’ Award.
The prestigious awards are organised by GP Bullhound and showcase the 100 fastest growing technology companies from across the North.
The 10th Northern Tech Awards were held at the Assembly Rooms, in Edinburgh, and other winners included:
- Judges’ Young Entrepreneur Award – Horsefly
- Judges’ Entrepreneur Award – Planixs
- Judges’ Leadership Award – Opencast Software
- Judges Tech4Good Award – Cognassist
- Judges’ Innovation Award – Shot Scope
The Northern Star Awards were also handed out to the most exciting earlier stage companies in the tech ecosystem. The winners were:
- Northern Star Overall Judges’ Award – Recast
- Northern Star Innovation Award – Sticky
- Northern Star Leadership Award – Uma
- Northern Star Award for Potential International Success – GigPig
A league table of the fastest growing 100 tech companies in the North was revealed on the night with the number one accolade going to Leeds-based Burendo.
They beat Modern Milkman into second place and Double Eleven into third.
The award for the fastest growing larger company of the year went to Fruugo.com.
Analysis from GP Bullhound revealed that the Top 100 fastest-growing tech companies in the North recorded an average growth rate of 42 per cent, and the top 10 had an average growth rate of 119 per cent.
CurrentBody employ 120 people in its Manchester base and 11 in its Shanghai office in China.
Last year the business registered £53m in sales and is on target to hit £86m this year.
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Andrew Showman, CTO and co-founder of CurrentBody, said the business has gone from having one UK website to one with 22 localised websites around the world in 14 languages, shipping to 90 countries.
“Our UK sales have gone from 87 per cent in 2015 down to under 20 per cent with the rest going overseas,” he said.
He said winning the Overall Judges’ Award was a real honour given the quality of the previous winners.
“One of the previous winners was On The Beach and their founder Simon Cooper is one of our non executives in the business and has been a great help,” he said.
“GP Bullhound have been a great support over the years. They were the advisors of our first deal. We’re truly honoured to have won.
“We’re based in Alderley Park and have found Manchester to be a brilliant tech hub to attract great talent.”
Earlier at Thursday’s event, GP Bullhound’s co-founder and managing partner Hugh Campbell gave a sombre welcoming address with the keynote interview being with Calum Smeaton, founder of TVSquared.
Javed Huq, executive director at GP Bullhound, said: “It was an honour to recognise and celebrate the fastest growing technology companies across the Northern tech ecosystem at Thursday’s awards in Edinburgh.
“2022 proved to be an outstanding year for the Northern tech sector, despite a more challenging environment across tech, demonstrating the resilience of the brilliant entrepreneurs building these innovative tech companies.
“The North of the UK is a true powerhouse in starting and scaling world-class businesses, and we look forward to following our talented award winners as they continue their success journeys.”