Crawley Down business shortlisted for not one, not two, but four business awards

Pittingale & Daughter Foods is all about supporting young food and drink businesses within the UK through their consultancy services and retail opportunities. Already named the winner of the 'Best SME Food Retail Consultancy 2023' in the UK Enterprise Awards, hosted by SME News, Francesca Pittingale (Founder, Co-Founder SUP Foods) and Parminder Virdi (Co-Founder SUP Foods) are eagerly awaiting the remaining results to come in:- 'Best New Business 2023' finalist at the Dynamic Business Awards 2023, hosted by Platinum Media Group. Winners announced May 25, 2023.- 'Online Retail StartUp of the Year 2023' finalist at the Southeast StartUp Awards 2023. Winners announced June 1, 2023.- 'Rising Star 2023' finalist at the Southeast StartUp Awards 2023. Winners announced June 1, 2023.

Francesca Pittingale, ex. Sainsbury’s, Costcutter, and Milk & More, founded Pittingale & Daughter Foods in 2022, wanting to combine her passion for the food industry with her enthusiasm for teaching, albeit as a qualified dance teacher previously. Her partner Parminder Virdi co-founded the SUP Foods brand with Francesca after attending an inspirational food industry event. SUP Foods, which stands for Shop Unique & Proper good, is arguably the most visible part of the business with their mobile coffee shop trading in and around the Crawley Down area. Both the coffee shop and the online shop boast about the exciting young food and drink brands available, brands that customers won't easily find elsewhere. The less visible part of the business is the consultancy that Francesca manages, based on her 14 years of experience in the food industry. Accessibility is something that this business is passionate about with their vision being to increase the number of start-up success stories in the UK food industry through supporting in sales, procurement, insights, and design at affordable prices.

With regards to the awards, Francesca said: “We’re thrilled to have been shortlisted as a finalist in several new business awards, not only for ourselves but as recognition for the brilliant SME’s that we work with. Our vision is to increase the number of start-up success stories in the UK food industry. Almost 60% of start-ups in the UK fail within the first 3 years of trading and we believe that some of those can be avoided if there were more accessible resources for these businesses. We’re excited to have been named a winner in the SME News UK Enterprise Awards already and look forward to celebrating our successes, win or otherwise, with fellow start-ups at the upcoming award ceremonies.”

Parminder said: “It's a great privilege to be recognised as an up-and-coming business and to have been shortlisted for these awards. It just shows that the hard work, innovation, tears, and joy that we’ve put in are all worth it. We have ambitious plans for the next three years and, with the recognition from being shortlisted for these awards, we hope to continue to push our business forward and support more small brands in their next steps.”

The StartUp Awards and UK Enterprise Awards were launched to recognise the booming startup scene across the UK which has accelerated since the 2020 pandemic. Over 800,000 new businesses were founded in the UK since 2021, a 4.3% increase from the year before. The Dynamic Business Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of female business leaders across Sussex and Surrey. In 2021, only 19% of SME’s were led by women, a slight increase on the 2020 figure of 16%. Recognising and encouraging these businesswomen is an important part of what the Dynamic Business Awards want to achieve.

You can find out more about Pittingale & Daughter Foods online, at www.p-dfoods.co.uk and www.supfoods.uk, or on social media.