Time To Celebrate for Awards Finalists

Bronwen Thomas
Aug 26
3 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

The much anticipated shortlist for the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards 2025 has been unveiled (full shortlist below).

Women led businesses from across Scotland have been chosen as finalists for the awards, with the judging panel facing the difficult task of determining just 48 finalists across 10 categories.

Carolyn Currie, Chief Executive at Women’s Enterprise Scotland, said; “

Our Awards recognise the considerable contribution women-led businesses make to Scotland’s economy. It is our time to come together and celebrate success, as well as to provide visible role models for the women and girls who follow. Both the volume and the calibre of entries for the Awards were very high and the judging panel had a very challenging task to compile the list of finalists. We are now looking forward to a fantastic Awards evening in October, when we will shine a spotlight on the diverse range of women led businesses which are making such a vital contribution to Scotland’s economy”

Finalists at this year’s awards include Edinburgh based Three Robins, shortlisted in the Start-up Business category, The Highland Soap Co Ltd, shortlisted for the Outstanding Business of the Year Award and Alexander Manufacturing, based in Cumbernauld, who are one of six businesses contesting the Sustainable Business of the Year category.

Winners of the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards, which is being supported by Business Gateway, HFL Holistic Financial Leadership, YOURGB, The TEFL Org and Scottish Enterprise will be announced at a glittering ceremony which takes place at the voco Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow on Thursday 23 October. The keynote speaker at this year’s event is Annie Stewart, co-founder of ANTA Scotland.

Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) was established in 2011 as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) working to close the gender gap in enterprise participation. WES advocates for better evidence-based policy making and believes that delivering expert, needs-based business support will enable women to fulfil their aspirations and unlock an £17bn economic potential to boost the economy.

The recent WES Survey of Women in Enterprise 2025 revealed the urgent need for a strategic, long-term solution to boost women-centric business support.

While women-led business start-ups have increased to 54% of all start-ups in Scotland (2025) [1], the post-start-up pipeline has a high attrition rate of 61% (2023-24), and women-led employer businesses have dropped to just 20% of all employer businesses. This declining trend in Scotland is at odds with the global increase in established women-led businesses[2] and exposes a key disconnect between Scotland’s thriving start-up culture and the failure of many of these businesses to move through to the established and growing phase.

For further information about the Awards and to obtain tickets, visit www.wescotland.co.uk/awards2025