Stephanie Witts, owner of Witts Design, explains why the business should win the Startup of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
After graduating university, Stephanie decided to set up a company in partnership with her mother Michelle. Michelle and Stephanie have always inspired each other – when Stephanie was younger, she would create drawings for Michelle’s interior designs business. Later on, Stephanie went to study textiles at university, and Michelle also applied to do a degree in the same subject.
In Michelle’s second year and Stephanie’s final year, they both worked together in the same studio. In September 2014, the company was set up from the kitchen table and they haven’t looked back since.
Michelle and Stephanie’s passion is about creating beautiful, unique designs for the textile industry as well as their own homewares and fashion accessories range. They have a strong belief in showcasing traditional methods of design, so they design, print and hand make everything themselves from their studio.
Michelle and Stephanie also believe in supporting British manufacturing so they source and print all of their fabrics in the UK. Most of the time they screen print their fabrics themselves at a printing facility they hire out in Bermondsey.
The company’s achievements over the last year have been creating the brand, taking on staff to help with workload, looking for new premises, and working with some fantastic designers to create their own bespoke collections. This is shaping up to be an exciting year!
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
