Your email address:    Friend's email address:

by Real Business - Tuesday, 30th October 2007

This is the page

The 2007 Entrepreneurs’ Entrepreneur shortlist features extraordinary individuals from the worlds of the internet, mobiles, coffee, high-street opticians, shoes-and-philanthropy, and property. Each of the shortlisted candidates has had a remarkable year, whether that’s floating their business, taking it private, enjoying stellar growth or appointing their latest “apprentice”.

If you already know who you want to vote for, go straight to the poll.

Charles Dunstone

It’s been an irresistible year for the founder and CEO of Carphone Warehouse. The company, which he founded in 1989 with £6,000 of his savings, is now Europe's largest independent retailer of mobile phones and the UK's third largest provider of broadband internet access, with more than 2.4 million customers.

It has successfully introduced the concept of the “Geek Squad.” It was picked by Apple to be the sole independent outlet to stock the next must-have product, the iPhone. To top it all, Carphone Warehouse was admitted to the elite ranks of the FTSE-100.

Now Charles intends his stores to become one-stop shop for the multimedia home of the future. It’s been a journey of remarkable speed and strength of purpose. And if that wasn’t enough, he is now assembling a crack team to mount a British bid for the America’s Cup.

Simon Nixon

How many company founders float their business on the London Stock Exchange â“ and then announce maiden six-month results with sales up 63 per cent, margins up from 58 per cent to 66 per cent, and pre-tax profits of £6.2m?

Simon’s creation was the last major flotation to get away, just as the credit crunch hit market sentiment. The FT described moneysupermarket.com as “a dynamic company that invests heavily in its product to keep ahead of burgeoning competition.”

Simon started his business in 1999 â“ ten years after Charles Dunstone â“ but it is just as remarkable a journey.

Sir Tom Hunter

Just over 20 years ago, he was sleeping in the back of a van with boxes of training shoes. Today, he’s a billionaire who is changing the face of philanthropy in the UK.

“Entrepreneurs,” he says, “are uniquely placed to make a difference in the world in which we live.” But he hasn’t just been busy driving change in charities and in the Scottish education system.

His long-running battle with Tesco (and how many entrepreneurs can give that mighty enterprise a run for its money?) for the Dobbies chain of garden centres occupied the financial pages for much of 2007.

Sir Alan Sugar

Sir Alan left school at the age of 16 to start a career in the civil service. It didn’t last long. At the age of 21 he founded Amstrad (Alan Michael Sugar TRADing). Two years later he was manufacturing low-priced hi-fi turntable covers and in 1980, Amstrad was floated on the London Stock Exchange.

This year, he sold the company to BSkyB for £125m. Of course, in the past years, the tycoon has become a TV personality, being inescapably linked with The Apprentice.

He may generate lots of opinions, but one thing is for sure: Sir Alan has been one the UK’s most tireless advocates for the entrepreneurial spirit, giving many talks around the UK’s schools and universities.

Dame Mary Perkins

With her husband Doug, Dame Mary set up Specsavers in a spare bedroom on a table-tennis table in Guernsey 23 years ago. The couple had moved there after selling a small chain of West Country opticians.

It is now the largest privately owned opticians with nearly 900 stores across the UK and Europe. The company employs nearly 15,000 (of which 10,000 are women) with turnover of approximately £700m and is expected to exceed £1bn within the next two years.

Their rapidly expanding hearing service now sells more hearing aids than anyone else in Britain. In recognition of her achievement in business â“ but also for her huge efforts towards charities and the community of Guernsey â“ she was made a Dame Commander in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Gerry Ford

It’s only just more than a decade ago that there were no coffee shop chains on the UK high street. Now there’s a Caffe Nero everywhere â“ and its founder remains in charge.

Gerry Ford built the business from scratch to be one of the top three coffee shop chains, based upon a philosophy of excelling in "coffee, atmosphere, food and service". At the beginning of the year, he took the company private in order to focus on an aggressive expansion programme outside of the UK.

Made up your mind? Then vote in the poll.

Tags: