THE Edinburgh-based creators of the world’s first portable wood-fired oven have won the Family Business Entrepreneur of the Year prize at the annual Royal Bank of Scotland Great British Entrepreneur Awards.
The chief executive of the Uuni business, Kristian Tapaninaho, was also runner-up in the Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the year category at the Scottish event.
Founded by Tapaninaho and wife Darina Garland, the first Uuni oven was launched in 2012 and since then the Uuni 3 and the brand new Uuni Pro have gone on sale.
Now with 20 staff, Uuni sells ovens in 70 countries online and through retailers such as John Lewis and Amazon. The Uuni Pro was launched with an international crowdfunding campaign which saw over £500,000 raised in a month, surpassing the firm’s already ambitious target by 1,288 per cent.
Finnish-born founder Kristian Tapaninaho said; “We’re a family-run company with huge ambition and drive to see the business go far. Winning the Family Business Entrepreneur Award is testament to our growing team and the effort that goes into all that we do.
“2017 has been a phenomenal year for growth for us both in terms of products and our business. We’re so proud of our team and of what’s been achieved.”
Tapaninaho set up the business after taking up pizza-making as a family cook. He could not get the required finish on his home products and found pizza ovens on the market were expensive and had to be fixed in place, so resolved to come up with something better himself.
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