The winners of Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2018 Digital Entrepreneur Awards are celebrating after opening their first store in London.
The Couture Club, which has more than 310,000 followers on Instagram and sells its clothes on popular website Asos.com, started in Manchester in 2015 and claims to sell “street style with premium quality yet high street prices”.
With successful stores in Newcastle’s Metro Centre and Manchester’s Trafford Centre, it is now launching in Stratford’s Westfield shopping centre.
Businesses have been urged to enter the 2019 awards after the deadline was extended to August 23rd.
Former Ex on the Beach contestant Ross Worswick and co-founder Scott Shashua say they haven’t looked back since claiming the prize at a glittering ceremony last November.
“Since we won the award the business had increased substantially,” Worswick told BusinessCloud.“We are currently in the process of opening up our London store which will be a huge achievement for ourselves and the business. To have our own footprint in the capital city will be amazing.
“Sales have been really good in the first half of the year and we are really excited to release our winter collection. We are currently on target to double 2018 turnover and are already seeing great traction in Germany and the United States.”
The Couture Club is also set to move to a new web platform and warehouse system which will speed up the order processing time “dramatically”.
Worswick continued: “We are in the process of launching our sustainable range and have already moved to recyclable mail bags.”
A stellar judging panel for the 2019 DEAs includes Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, who told BusinessCloud that the awards will lift the lid on what’s coming next in tech.
The awards, now in their 15th year, consider every aspect of the digital industries, celebrating exceptional businesses, entrepreneurs, developers, designers and more.
“The amount of talent in the room was amazing,” added Worswick. “It was great to be a part of such a respected event that was backed by so many influential people in the industry.“It felt amazing to win in front of all of them and be recognised for the hard work we have both put into the business from the start.
“It meant a lot to us because we have probably made every mistake there is on our journey and have managed to keep progressing at a great speed, so to be recognised as entrepreneurs was really special.
“It means successful people around us are paying attention and are impressed with our vision and direction we are going.”
The judging panel for the 2019 DEAs includes UKFast co-founders Lawrence Jones MBE and Gail Jones, Swiscot Group CEO Vikas Shah, Big Revolution founder Martin SFP Bryant, NatWest enterprise manager Heather Waters, Tropic Skincare CEO Susie Ma, Tech North Advocates co-founder Naomi Timperley and Space 48 MD Jon Woodall.
The DEAs, held in association with UKFast, are the only national awards dedicated to internet entrepreneurialism. They are free to enter, with a black-tie dinner held on November 21st at the iconic Principle Hotel in the heart of Manchester city centre.