A hardworking and determined business owner from Hampshire, has won a prestigious national award.
Susan Bonnar , who runs The British Craft House, a retail platform supporting hundreds of independent, small handmade and crafting businesses has been given a very special award at this year’s Small Business Saturday Blue Tie Event.
Susan was awarded the Francesca Kemp Award for Small Business at the annual SmallBiz100 event.
The event celebrates the UK’s most inspiring small businesses past and present and starts the official countdown to this year’s Small Business Saturday on December 2.
Small Business Saturday is a grassroots, non-commercial campaign, which celebrates small business success and encourages consumers to shop local and to support businesses in their communities.
Susan received the award out of recognition for the inspiring, collaborative way she runs her business and her impressive determination and community spirit.
Selected as a SmallBiz100 in 2020 – which is an annual line-up of UK’s 100 most inspiring small businesses – the British Craft House has demonstrated impressive growth over the year, recently celebration taking £1 Million of website sales.
The Francesca Kemp Award is awarded each year to a small business that demonstrates an outstanding contribution to its local area and to the UK small business community. It was created in memory of Fran Kemp, founder of Crafty Revolution, who was one of the very first members of the SmallBiz100 in 2014 and who sadly passed away from cancer in 2015.
The award is announced each year at the annual Blue Tie Event, which is always a huge celebration. Around 250 businesses from across the country joined this year’s event, which was held at St Mary’s church in London.
Susan said: “I was thrilled and very surprised to win the Francesca Kemp Award this year at the Blue Tie Ball, it was such an honour to be picked from an amazing group of small business owners. Small businesses are such an integral part of the community and Small Business Saturday is the perfect campaign to highlight them and the need to support them.”
Michelle Ovens CBE, Director of Small Business Saturday UK said: “Congratulations to Susan – she is a truly inspiring business owner whose business is so fantastic and makes such an incredible impact. It was brilliant to celebrate with her and other fantastic small businesses from across the UK as we look forward to another fabulous Small Business Saturday on the 2 December this year.”
About The British Craft House
The British Craft House is a multi-vendor platform for handmade items made in Great Britain. It is application based to ensure the highest quality designs. Each shop gets its own web address making it a viable alternative to getting online without setting up your own website. With all items on the site being of the highest quality it makes for the ultimate shopping experience.
The British Craft House launched in November 2019 and is the best site to sell handmade items on in the UK. Based on the South Coast in Hampshire it quickly grew to become a tour de force in the handmade world. It was selected as just one of 12 businesses across Britain to attend the Downing Street Festive Showcase in 2022, allowing over 200 sellers to be spotlighted in this prestigious location.
Behind the website at TBCH there is a friendly support hub which enables sellers to connect, network and learn. They can join in as much or as little as they like. They have breakfast zoom meetings, networking weekends, webinars and more, providing opportunities to learn and grow.
TBCH has won many awards since launching in November 2019, including from the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, The Micro Business Awards and the Federation of Small Businesses.
