We’ve got some really great news to share and we can’t wait to tell everybody about it.
Barclays have announced the winner for the South West of the “Take One Small Step” competition and it’s us! We’re so excited and wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who voted for us.
The aim of the Barclays Business Take One Small Step competition is to find people with ambition, passion and, most importantly, a great business idea. Barclays know that 2010 will continue to be challenging for businesses and wanted to help.
The competition attracted over 3,500 entries from around the UK. Whittled down by business experts to a final shortlist of 30, a massive public voting campaign selected the winning business for each of 10 regions across the country.
Darren Farnell, head of local business, Barclays Business, South West said: “Congratulations to the ten winners of the Take One Small Step competition, each of whom will share in £500,000. It is a life-changing amount of money designed to help them realise their dreams.
“These businesses will now be able to start or expand their companies, manufacture some incredibly innovative products, and give back to the community that has shown them so much support in the voting stages.
“The standard of entries for the competition has been incredibly high, but the winners were all able to demonstrate the business X factor to gain huge support from the public to vote for them. They have displayed a fantastic mix of creativity, ingenuity and business acumen to capture the public’s imagination. I’d like to wish all of our successful business ideas good luck in the future and I hope this competition is a springboard for long term success.”
As one of the 10 winners nationwide, we’ll receive a massive £50,000 to help grow our business.
Our managing director, Stephen Fitzpatrick, said:
“We’re very excited and proud to have won this award. Everyone at Ovo has worked incredibly hard over the past year and it’s fantastic to see their efforts recognised – especially when you consider our short history. We’ve only been trading for nine months but already we’ve grown our team to more than 50 people and, with 30,000 customers, have created a challenger brand that people are really buying into.
“Ovo Energy is about giving customers what they want: cheaper prices, greener energy and easier to understand bills. The competition money we’ve won will be ploughed into an important project to help improve the accuracy of our customers’ bills. It will fund a trial of smart meters from which the lessons learned will help us achieve one of our biggest goals – to provide all our customers with smart meters as standard.
“Of course, we wouldn’t have won without the support and enthusiasm of our customers and the public. So we’d like to say a big thank you to the thousands of people who voted for us.”
We are delighted with all the comments that have been left on the Ovo Energy page within the Barclays voting site. We’ve attached just a few of our favourites.
“Does exactly what it says on the tin… simple, green and CHEAP! How do they do it???? I wish all the suppliers thought and acted this way”
“We wanted to switch to a 100% renewable tariff, and found Ovo was by far the cheapest. Now we’re saving the environment AND saving money!”
“Since coming to Ovo, my bills have gone WAY down, and so has my carbon footprint. Ovo’s new interest reward scheme demonstrates their creativity and the commitment to ethical business practice”
“Easy, cheap and they answer the phone, that’s all the customer wants. Simple why cant all companies follow your example”
“We all NEED to have an energy provider, this company’s philosophy makes it an easy choice over others. It stands as a model all forward-thinking companies should aspire to.”
“Greener, responsive, flexible and detailed info, easy to interpret, with intelligent phased billing, Ovo has thought through customers needs!”
“Ovo are very customer focussed and a first class operator. Good luck to them for reinventing customer service.”
