Must Have Ideas, the Kent-based online retailer of home, kitchen, cleaning and storage products, has been named a finalist in The Blick Rothenberg Mid-Market Growth Business of the Year Award at the 2026 Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards.
The family-run firm, which grew from a dining-table start-up into what it describes as one of the UK’s fastest growing and most disruptive online retailers in just eight years, reports that it has now served 12 million customers and that one in six UK households owns at least one of its products.
Everything under one roof
Unlike many large e-commerce operators, which tend to outsource as they expand, Must Have Ideas says it has kept its whole operation in-house from day one. A 200-strong team works under one roof at a 250,000 square-foot headquarters in Kent, covering everything from filming content for a social media audience of almost 900,000 to logistics, fulfilment and customer service. According to the business, it launches at least six new products every month and dispatches more than 13,000 orders a day, while its 50-strong customer service team, which it describes as award-winning, is fully equipped to make decisions that put the customer first. The company points to more than 219,000 Trustpilot and Google reviews, averaging 4.7 stars, as evidence of a loyal customer base that keeps coming back.
A workplace built around real life
In a sector notorious for high staff churn, the company reports a 77 per cent employee retention rate, with more than 80 per cent of employees describing Must Have Ideas as a great place to work. As a family business whose co-founders are raising young children themselves, it offers 18 weeks of fully paid parental leave to mothers and fathers alike. This year the retailer was named one of the UK’s Top 50 Inspiring Workplaces, while Amy, one of the founders named on the company’s website, earned a place on The Sunday Times Young Power List 2026 as one of the UK’s most inspiring people under 30.
Television, technology and a national ambition
The retailer’s model combines the psychology of QVC-style television shopping with the reach and speed of social media. Powered by SPARK, its proprietary technology platform, the business recently launched what it says is the UK’s first AI-powered shopping channel across Sky, Freesat and YouTube, opening its reach to tens of millions of new customers. Its stated five-year ambition is for every UK household to own at least one Must Have Ideas product.
Must Have Ideas will now find out whether it takes the title when winners of The Blick Rothenberg Mid-Market Growth Business of the Year Award are revealed at Grosvenor House, London on 10 November 2026, the flagship ceremony of the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards.
