Empine, founded just two years ago by Jacob Knowles, 23, and Anthony Taylor, 25, has seen its two directors nominated in the North West regional gala finals for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards in the Young Entrepreneur of the Year category, along with also both being shortlisted for a New Business award at the Sub36 Awards, which recognise achievement from Lancashire businesspeople under the age of 36.
Knowles said: “We don’t often get a lot of time to step back and look at what we’ve done over the last year so it’s a good opportunity to do that and to realise we are going in the right direction.
“In terms of winning I think corporate social responsibility (CSR) sets us apart but it depends what is being looked at, whether that be what your day job is, turnover or who has had the most reach.”
The two will face competition at the Great British Entrepreneur awards from marketing agency Social Chain’s chief executive officer Steve Bartlett and ticket seller Vibe Tickets’ Luke Massie. Previous winners of the award include Just Eat’s David Buttress, BrewDog’s James Watt and the Lad Bible’s Alexander Solomou.
The North West regional event will take place in November in Manchester as one of five gala finals across the UK.
Empine will be taking on two to three more staff over the next six months and is looking to relocate from its Blackburn premises, having this year launched its Empine Education sub-brand, which is targeted to make up more than half of its projected £175,000 sales at the end of the financial year and is soon to be rolled out nationally.
Meanwhile, four of Clitheroe-based Printing Cup Company’s female employees have been shortlisted for gongs at the 2017 Downtown Lancashire Women in Business Awards.
Two of Printed Cup’s nominees, Olivia Pamphlett and Sophie Parkinson, have been nominated in the Employee of the Year category, while Lauren Tonge is up for Digital and Creative and Shahida Bibi is shortlisted for Marketer of the Year. The ceremony is also due to take place in November, this time in Preston.
“We feel really excited and it’s nice for so many people in the company to be nominated for this. It’s just nice to show that we’re doing something right,” said Bibi.
