Rokka up for national award

Cornish wooden toy specialist Rokka Play has been shortlisted for the Nursery World Awards 2011.

The St Mellion-based company has been nominated in the Best New Launch category, and will discover whether it has been successful at a ceremony in London at the end of September.

Since winning the inaugural Ignite Business Plan Competition last year, it has been a remarkable first year of trading for the company.

And founders Vanessa Harris and Samantha Spake have expressed their gratitude for the convergence-funded support that has helped them to develop.

“Winning Ignite has helped us in a way we couldn’t have achieved otherwise,” said Harris. “Oxford Innovation and their team of coaches have been an integral part of our achievement today.

“We are so lucky in Cornwall with all of the business support the county offers but the breadth of advisory opportunities that Oxford Innovation provides combined with the fact that the coaches who work alongside us have been in our position and are entrepreneurs themselves, really sets them apart.”

Rokka Play will have been trading a year this October, during which time they have grown the business substantially after attending the National Baby Show, moving into a new office and receiving substantial trade press attention.

It has also recently received interest from department stores and is currently working on new product development with new lines due in January 2012.

The Ignite Business Plan Awards has just completed its second successful year where Michael Mailing from innovative baby feeding product company Sproggie, scooped the award.

Rokka isn’t the only Cornish company to be shortlisted in the Nursery World Awards. Fit ‘N’ Fun Kids, which won the team development award last year, has been named in the business development category.