THE man at the helm of cult children’s clothing company Frugi will be offering his help and advice to the winner of our fantastic Local Business Accelerators competition.
Kurt Jewson started the company with his wife Lucy back in 2004, originally working from the spare room at their cottage in Constantine.
The business has since grown to become the UK’s number one organic cotton childrenswear brand – all in less than a decade.
Now Kurt has offered to mentor the winner of the Packet’s own Local Business Accelerators competition – which is being run as part of a national campaign aimed at delivering a boost to promising young businesses through free advertising and mentoring.
Businesses aged between one and five years old can enter LBA for the chance to win a free ad campaign in the Packet, plus the mentoring support from Mr Jewson.
The most promising businesses will go forward to the national stage of the competition to win a year's mentoring from Deborah Meaden and a local advertising campaign devised by a top London creative ad agency.
Businesses aged between one and five years can enter the competition in their local newspaper via the LBA hub - www.accelerateme.co.uk - before the closing date of 16 November - or follow the links from our website at thepacket.co.uk.
Meanwhile the company is also celebrating this week after it was announced that they have been selected to receive a grant, from the Convergence European Regional Development Fund, worth nearly £15,000.
The funding is part of the Cornwall Development Company's 'Business Investment for Growth' scheme and will go towards a major upgrade of Frugi's IT infrastructure.
The BIG scheme is to improve the competitive advantage of high growth Cornish Small & Medium Enterprises (SME's), leading to 400 skilled jobs being created.
It is aimed at high value add businesses with a strong track record of performance, operating in national/international growth markets with innovative and competitive products and services.
Brent Treloar, from the Cornwall Development Company, remarked, "Frugi are a prime example of a fantastic and dynamic Cornish company doing great things, both here and abroad. It's great for Cornwall that they have received this grant."
Kurt Jewson, from Frugi, commented "It's a good feeling to know that our growth strategy is being supported in this way. We are now able to really upscale our systems to allow for increased remote working and greater flexibility to our employees, creating a further five more positions within the company over the next 12 months.
“The application criteria were, necessarily, stringent and a great deal of praise goes to our lovely financial guru, Tracy, who oversaw the process.”