BUSINESS owners who started off from their living room floor have built their way to the top and have been shortlisted in two national business awards.

Anna Cargan and Nathalie Redfern from Buildabundle, Barrow have been shortlisted for two national Business awards.

The first award is the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards in the Local Business category which celebrates and showcases the resilience, innovation and creativity of British businesses and secondly, the National Recycling Awards in the Circular Economy category which recognises the duos work to repurpose and recycle as many children's clothes and packaging items as possible, to reuse these and avoid them going to waste.

The small business sells new and second hand children's wear from newborn up to the age of 14 online. They have a small commercial unit on Shore Street, Barrow where they, along with their six employees package orders.

Anna Cargan 34 set up the business as she struggled to buy second hand clothes for her children when they were young as there was no shops in the area selling any.

She said: “I saw a gap in the market and decided to start my own business to help other mums.

“I started off in my living room in 2018 and the business started to quickly grown so I got a small office and it just got bigger and bigger and I needed more space so ended up here where I am today.

“Nathalie soon came on board to help me manage the orders and she’s been here for two and a half years now.”

Anna and Nathalie met when they were pregnant with their first child and have been best friend’s ever since.

The pair pride themselves in looking at the effects of the environment and making people aware of climate change by selling second hand clothes.

Nathalie, 35 said she and Anna are excited to attend the awards and represent Barrow.

She said: “We are proud of where we live and we want to give the area a good name.

“We are not going down on the expectations of winning we are just honoured to be shortlisted and recognised as one of the top in Cumbria.

“We are really grateful for customers who have kept us going and supported us through everything and got us to where we are now.”