Success is in the bag for winner of The Pitch Scotland
An entrepreneur who went from being unemployed to running a business turning over £250,000 has scooped the top prize at the latest leg of BusinessZone.co.uk's £50,000 competition.
Craig Smith, founder of The Printed Bag Shop, was named winner of the Scottish heat of The Pitch 2009 during an exciting event in Glasgow on Tuesday.
Judged by a panel of experts including Jennifer Cheyne, Edinburgh entrepreneur and star of Channel 4's The Secret Millionaire, Smith fought off tough competition from five other small business owners to take the title.
After being made redundant and hit by spiralling debts, Smith set up the The Printed Bag Shop in 2007 with help from the Prince's Trust.
In just two years, the company, which supplies environmentally friendly printed carrier bags, has achieved impressive growth and attracted high profile clients including Coca Cola, Boots, The London Stock Exchange and Virgin Money.
Smith's victory follows that of Kenneth Cheung, founder of BEEcycle, who won the North heat of the competition and David Wright and David Webb of Vibe Gum, winners at the South West leg.
All will join the winners of the remaining regional events in Birmingham and London at a final in November to compete for a business support package worth £50,000 including one-on-one mentoring from former Dragons' Den judge Doug Richard.
The other judges at the event held at Barclays Wealth were Michael Canon, head of innovation grants at the Scottish government's SMART:SCOTLAND; Nick Price, managing director of Edinburgh-based recruitment company Bright Purple; Craig Patterson, former board member at Young Enterprise Scotland and the founder of Football Aid; Graeme Scott, the founder of information management specialists Stortext and Bill Morrow, co-founder of Angels Den, a network which connect entrepreneurs and investors.
The other contestants taking part were Alan Powell, founder, Energy Mechanics; Amanda Jones, co-founder, Red Button Design; Richard Burton, founder, Hood Easy; Andy Smith; founder, Agenor Technology and Russell Young, founder, Proguard Plus.
Applications for the Midlands and South East heats of The Pitch 2009 are still open. To take part, visit www.thepitch2009.com.
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