Shrewsbury based technology company named Best New Business at Prestigious Business Awards
A Shrewsbury technology company is celebrating after being named Best New Business at the UK Business Awards 2021 from Awards International.
At the start of 2020 when the first UK Lockdown struck, Shrewsbury based Entrepreneur Theo Millward felt his fair share of the economic pain.
Off the back of the most successful year at his company Swimtime, like the rest of the leisure industry, the lessons for 20,000 children all over the UK stopped overnight.
“It was brutal” Theo says, “…the taps were turned off instantly, no revenue, very little meaningful support – what an earth can you do?”
Theo contacted Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski who was sympathetic but ultimately could do little:
“The biggest frustration which I voiced to Daniel was the financial support. The grants and loans might sound like a lot but in reality, they didn’t touch the sides. We were burning over £15,000 a month in cash just standing still. We simply had to think differently to survive”
Two weeks into lockdown the light bulb moment came when Theo realised the multi-award-winning technology he had developed for Swimtime could be applied to other activity providers. FranScape was born.
“We sprang into action on this new venture starting the business from ground zero, sales, finance, operations – the lot was brand new.”
Just four weeks after launching FranScape their first client was signed. Over the coming months the business got bigger and now, 15 months on, FranScape has seen rapid growth with over 70,000 customers being serviced on behalf of a rapidly growing client base.
Last week, the young and hungry FranScape team were delighted to learn they had won Best New Business at the UK Business Awards 2021 from Awards International.
“This award is the icing on the cake on what has been the most incredible 12 months for my team. Against all the odds and challenges of the pandemic, FranScape has emerged as one of the most exciting and talked about innovations in Franchising.
"For our success to be recognised independently means the world to me and I could not be prouder of this momentous achievement.”
FranScape also won a Silver Award for Product Development.
With offices by the River Severn in Shrewsbury, FranScape is a high growth start up with global ambitions.
