We were delighted join Enterprise Enfield for their 30th anniversary celebrations at a packed out dinner on the evening of the 25th November.
We have worked closely with Enterprise Enfield since early in our formation, through ESF projects ERA and Excel, and over the last two years through the youth enterprise support programme in Talent Match London.
With the latter especially in mind, we were delighted to sponsor the 2015 Enterprise Enfield ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award and to sit on the judging panel. It was an extremely difficult choice to make, with two very impressive finalists making the shortlist- and whose biographies can be seen below.
In the end, the winner on the night was twenty-five year old Joshua Cummins of Theo Jones Recruitment, who joined the winners in the other categories. The awards were the highlight of a very successful evening, during which guests were entertained by former captain of Tottenham Hotspur, Gary Mabbut MBE.
Theo Jones Recruitment – The winner of the young entrepreneur of the year award, 25-year old Joshua Cummins (Director) has been associated with some of the most prestigious brands in the automotive industry. He started his business, Theo Jones Recruitment, in 2013 with the support of a Start Up Loan – together with on-going advice and guidance from Enterprise Enfield Adviser, Peter Saggers. He recently secured an additional Start Up Loan to enable the business to move into larger premises and take on 6 extra staff in line with expansion plans.
Many of Joshua’s staff are from the local community and his business responds to a niche market place – the UK automotive sector which employs 731,000 people. There is currently a shortage of skilled, qualified and technical positions in the motor industry in the UK. It is expected that 100,000 new automotive jobs will be created by 2020.
Pictured right: Joshua Cummins (centre) receives the Enterprise Enfield Young Entrepreneur of the Year award from Rinova’s Director, Rick Parkes and Heather Melville, Director of Strategic Partnerships, RBS.
The business has been recognised by the Recruitment and Employment Federation as a credible and trusted recruitment partner. It has become the preferred supplier for one of the largest automotive retailers in the UK, a company which employs nearly 3,000 people in 74 locations, representing 24 prestige brands. In addition they are the only automotive agency offering short term automotive job opportunities – supporting candidates to gain valuable experience. Theo Jones is also an ISO accredited company and these cornerstones have helped Joshua build a successful business that has resulted in sales and profit almost being doubled in the second year of trading. It is estimated that turnover will continue to increase by around £250,000.
The very worthy runner-up was Achilleos Energy Assessors – George Achilleos is a 30 year old who started his business, Achilleos Energy Assesors in 2013. Realising that his employment offered little progression, he studied and gained a qualification in domestic energy assessment. His business focuses on supplying a range of Energy Performance Certificates for both residential and commercial properties. George operates in a highly legislated and competitive marketplace with over 2,000 assessors in the UK and an average of 60,000 homes requiring an EPC each year.
Within 2 years he has grown the business sufficiently to be able to compete with bigger EPC providers and tender for larger contracts – such as one for 1,000 properties with a surveying company in Watford. George is also diversifying his services to offer Legionella Risk Assessments, Inventory Reports, Simplified Building Energy Model calculations – and new opportunities are continuously being explored. As a result, Achilleos Energy Assessors has been rated 1st in London and 11th (out of 885) in the UK in its category for EPCs on the Freeindex website, where clients frequently award ‘5 Star Reviews’ for his service.
