The founder of Hey Girls, the range of sanitary products and campaign to tackle period poverty, has been crowned Great British Entrepreneur of the Year for the Scotland region.
The founder of Hey Girls, the range of sanitary products and campaign to tackle period poverty, has been crowned Great British Entrepreneur of the Year for the Scotland region.
Celia Hodson started Hey Girls in 2018 with her daughters Kate and Becky with one simple mission; to ensure no girls in the UK go without sanitary products due to poverty. Earlier in the night Celia also came runner-up in Entrepreneur for Good category at the regional final, which took place in Glasgow for the first time.
Hey Girls sells its own range of sustainable sanitary products using the ‘buy one give one’ concept which donates a pack every time one is bought, but Celia also spends a large portion of her time campaigning and raising awareness of the issues that many girls face when they’re unable to afford sanitary products.
Now in its seventh year, the Royal Bank of Scotland Great British Entrepreneur Awards celebrate the hard work and inspiring stories of entrepreneurs, rather than the business’ balance sheet.
Francesca James, founder of the Royal Bank of Scotland Great British Entrepreneur Awards, said: “I was blown away when I read Celia’s entry. She is one of those rare people who take all the knowledge and experience they’ve built up during a highly successful career and applied them to not only build something of their own, but something with a very strong and powerful social mission.
“No girl anywhere in the world should have to miss out on their education because they can’t access sanitary products, but I’m so glad that Celia has made it her mission to fight period poverty.”
“This is the third year we’ve come to Scotland and the standard of applications continues to grow every time. The journeys these entrepreneurs have taken to get where they are is incredibly inspiring. I want to congratulate all of our winners in Scotland and wish them the very best of luck for the National Final in November. With over 3,000 entries this year, it really is a great achievement in itself to get to the regional final.”
Gordon Merrylees, managing director of entrepreneurship at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: “Royal Bank of Scotland is proud to support the Great British Entrepreneur Awards celebrating another year of amazing achievements for entrepreneurs starting and growing businesses from every corner of the country. Supporting entrepreneurs is a key priority for Royal Bank of Scotland and our dedicated programme of fully funded accelerator hubs, mentoring, insight and bespoke coaching, is specifically designed to meet the needs of entrepreneurs who want to start, scale and succeed in business. Congratulations to all of the winners and to those who were shortlisted for one of these prestigious awards.”
The winners of each category will now go to the National Final, which takes place in London in November.
Full list of winners for the Scotland region:
Creative Industries Entrepreneur of the Year
Pete Martin | Always Be Content
Disruptor of the Year
Toby McCartney | MacRebur
Entrepreneur for Good Award
Catriona Mann | Bplasticfree
Entrepreneurial Spirit Award
Claire Adams | Claire Adams Total Health
Family Business Entrepreneur of the Year
Paul & Charlene Costello | Upload Abode
Food & Drink Entrepreneur of the Year
Ross Mackay | DARING FOODS
Health & Beauty Entrepreneur of the Year
Sara Roberts | Healthy Nibbles
Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year
Andrew Duncan | Soar
Service Industries Entrepreneur of the Year
John Gordon | Incentive Games
Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year
Scott Weir | Pillow Property Partner
Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year
Brigitte Read | Snag Tights
Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Olivia Conlon | ThePropertyStagers
Great British Entrepreneur of the Year (Scotland)
Celia Hodson | Hey Girls
