Bunbury businessman leads Protein Works firm to national accolade

A Bunbury man has helped a North West company be crowned New Business of the Year 2014.

Mark Coxhead is one of the founders of The Protein Works which won the accolade at the prestigious National Business Awards.

It is the latest recognition for the sports nutrition brand that has claimed five business awards in the last two months after just two years of trading.

The company aims to take sports nutrition to a mainstream audience.

The business has grown rapidly to become the UK’s second largest online brand with a reach of over two million and revenue of over £6 million.

National Business Awards judges said: “An almost faultless business, The Protein Works demonstrated clarity, drive and focus, an impressive digital presence and substantial growth.

“Benchmarking excellence in every aspect of its business, it has achieved incredible customer engagement.”

Mark said: “We’ve had an incredible year and this rounds it off in style.

“With such tough competition in the category, we’re immensely proud to have won this award.

“It’s a real team effort and this is testimony to not only our staff, but also our customers who spread the word far better than we could ever do.”

The company has also won Start-Up Company of the Year and Most Entrepreneurial Company of the Year , in the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2014.

It won Best Health & Beauty eCommerce in the eCommerce Awards, and Digital Team of the Year in the Digital Entrepreneur Awards.

The business was awarded a six-figure grant from Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) Business Growth Grant which is supported by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.

In addition, the Yorkshire Bank has provided a six figure facility allowing the business to now focus on its European growth plans.

Fellow founder Karl Jacobie added: “The future is very exciting as we look to take the TPW concept into Europe, as well as continue to build on the success in the UK.

“With the market growing fast, we have every intention of ‘staying ahead of the curve’.

“We’ve got some ground-breaking products to bring to market in 2015 which will no doubt shake things up even more.”

(Pictured: Karl Jacobie, Nick Smith, and Mark Coxhead receiving the award)