TOP UK ENTREPRENEUR IS HIGH WYCOMBE FIRM
(Dec 1-04)

An audio-visual rental service for the hospitality industry set up by the High Wycombe firm HotAV has won the £20,000 major prize in HSBC's search for the UK's top entrepreneurs.

The world-wide bank’s Start-Up Stars Awards, supported by the DTI and CBI, recognise businesses less than two years old. To be in with a chance HotAV realised it would have to come up with an exceptional idea if the business was to survive and develop.

The project it devised was simple. The firm’s team, comprising Dave Savage, Steven Worrell and “silent partner” Roger Kendrick, supply equipment, such as projectors, to hotels who used them for their own clients' business need. The equipment is left on site but HotAV only charge only for the time it’s used. Dave, Steven and silent partner Roger Kendrick, set up HotAV in August 2002 to develop the new venture.

Based in Lincoln Road, High Wycombe, the company now has a staff of eight, and supplies AV equipment to more than 200 sites around the UK.

John Rendall, head of business banking at HSBC, commented: “This is an outstanding example of what can be achieved when a unique business idea is identified and then implemented and brought to the marketplace with ambition, determination and sound management skills.”