Innovation Centre company named Best New Business

Happy Energy, based at Pool Innovation Centre, which is managed by Plymouth University on behalf of Cornwall Council, scooped the coveted honour at the award ceremony held at St Mellion International, which highlighted the very best of Cornwall’s business community.

The growing firm was an obvious contender for the prize having grown dramatically in just 12 months, creating 10 jobs for the region and smashing its forecast revenues to generate a staggering £5.4million in its first year of trading.

Happy Energy managing director Adrian Wright said: “We were both thrilled and surprised to be named Best New Business at the Cornwall Business Awards. Surprised, because the quality of those businesses shortlisted in the category with us was extremely high, and thrilled because it is testament to the 12 months of extremely hard work that everybody at Happy Energy has put in to take us from start-up to multi-million pound business in just one year.”

John Moores, Commercial Manager for Happy Energy who collected the award at the ceremony, said: “The awards ceremony was a real reflection and celebration of the wealth of diverse business talent we have here in Cornwall – and we are delighted to be a growing part of that.”

Happy Energy moved into Pool Innovation Centre (PIC) in May 2013 after the business was founded by managing director Adrian Wright four months earlier whilst working from home. Renewable energy specialist Adrian had previously run a similar company for 16 years before starting Happy Energy, which supplies a range of energy efficiency solutions to businesses and homes across the South West.

Happy Energy liaises between energy companies and installers, acting as a link point to help householders access available funding to pay for cost-cutting energy measures to be installed, such as including biomass boilers, LED lighting, solar panels and insulation.

After moving into PIC, Happy Energy was supported to grow its business and in just one year the company increased from a workforce of one to a staff of 10 – with up to an additional 10 jobs expected to be created in 2014.

Predicted revenue for the first year of £2.25million was more than doubled, with the company achieving revenues of £5.4million in the first 10 months – and greater returns expected for 2014.

Happy Energy has been supported by a number of organisations including the South West Investment Group (SWIG) which provided a £80,000 loan; a grant of over £30,000 from the Cornwall Development Company (CDC) through its European Regional Development Funded (ERDF) Business Investment for Growth; and £30,000 from Lloyds TSB to kick start the company’s growth potential.

Adrian added: “It is down to the hard work of our great team that we have achieved as much as we have in only our first year, but we have also benefited from key financial support from many organisations. It’s also been amazing to be at Pool Innovation Centre, where the support of manager Richard Scutt and his team has been invaluable.”

Richard Scutt, manager of PIC, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Happy Energy has won Best New Business at the Cornwall Business Awards. Happy Energy is an innovative, high growth business which is growing at a phenomenal rate, and we are delighted to be helping such a great business to achieve its full potential.”

The purpose-built business acceleration centre at Pool was the first of three Cornwall Innovation Centres built in the county by Cornwall Council with European funding. The three centres are now operated by Plymouth University with the support of GAIN, the Growth, Acceleration and Investment Network which aims to boost business growth and job creation in the South West.

PIC and its two sister centres in Falmouth and Truro have been ranked as amongst the best in the world by UK Business Incubation (UKBI) achieving INSPIRE accreditation, and are currently home to 139 businesses overall, employing around 480 people.

Since PIC opened in 2010 followed by Tremough at Penryn in 2012 and the Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre in Truro in 2013, the centres have supported the creation of more than 140 new jobs and helped companies based within the centres to enjoy annual growth of up to 40 per cent.

The Cornwall Innovation Centres are supported by the Cornwall Development Company (CDC) with £29million of investment provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).