The Used Kitchen Exchange (UKE) has won the national Barclays Entrepreneur Award for Sustainability.
The national award follows UKE’s win in the regional heats of the competition in September last year, for what the judges described as “a game-changing business, addressing a need that has often been overlooked”.
Commenting on UKE’s recognition in the Barclays awards, UKE founder Helen Lord said: “We are extremely proud to be chosen as the winner of this prestigious award. This achievement bears testament to the commitment of our wonderful teams here at UKE and of course the support of the amazing KBB industry. We are extremely excited for the future and the ground-breaking developments we have in the pipeline.”
This latest accolade comes after UKE was also awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise in recognition of its achievements for Sustainable Development within the kitchen industry.
The Barclays Entrepreneur Awards are in their seventh year and aim to highlight and recognise entrepreneurs from the UK who are changing their industries, the economy and society in unique, original and positive ways.
At Barclays, Katherine Morgan, head of high growth and entrepreneurs proposition, said: “The awards are a celebration of the incredible journey each and every entrepreneur takes, when choosing to start their businesses. The energy, determination, leadership and courage to create some of the UK’s most innovative and socially impactful businesses is truly inspirational. This is our opportunity to celebrate these founders, their business and the economic and social change they drive.”
She added: “This year for the first time we will be adding two new award categories, our Games Award in addition to our new Sustainability Award. So often it’s the entrepreneurial community through their exceptional innovation who drive the agenda for change. This is incredibly powerful and rightly needs to be recognised as we look to a more sustainable future across the UK and globally.”
Cheshire-based UKE specialises in the sale of ex-display and used kitchens and was founded in 2015 by Helen Lord to encourage consumers to rethink how they buy a kitchen. It was the first kitchen company in the UK to be awarded B Corp status.