The Puppet Company has been honoured in The Small Business Growth Awards, an awards scheme celebrating small businesses across the UK and organised by HSBC UK and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

The Puppet Company won the 2026 Family Business Award category for the East of England – and now goes forward to the national final. The Family Business Award category seeks to reward the UK’s top family-run SME with less than 250 employees. Judges look for an organisation that can demonstrate how the family’s nature and values have contributed to success across the business.

For The Puppet Company this is a highly appropriate win. The family has been front and centre of its work from the very beginning. It was started 25 years ago by two parents, Sue and Peter Lockey, who were formerly teachers, to help children learn through play, with products they designed at their family kitchen table. Today its puppets and soft toys are sold around the world, serving fans – both children and adults – across the globe.

But one thing hasn’t changed. It is still a family-run company with the same positive values and good business practices that it had in 2001, including a long-standing reputation for quality, creativity and learning and a growing focus on sustainable practices.

Despite the sad loss of Peter in 2021, his wife and children are continuing to move the business forward. Indeed, family members are in all parts of the business – notably three of the founders’ children who design, market and sell the company’s products, supported by Peter and Sue’s youngest daughter, an Early Years Teacher. To this day the family focus remains The Puppet Company’s founding values of creativity, learning and fun for everyone.

East of England winners of The Small Business Growth Awards attended a celebration dinner at the University Arms, Cambridge on 30 April. They will also be present at the National Final in London’s Savoy Hotel on 4 June where The Puppet Company will find out if it is the national winner for its category.

Sue Lockey, Owner & Co-Founder, The Puppet Company, says: “We are over the moon to have won this award and for our work to have been acknowledged by HSBC UK and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). It’s particularly important to me as this is, and always has been, a family business, one I started with my late husband that is still working and helping children around the world over 25 years after it was founded. All of our products are designed to be as accessible as possible and played with by everyone. The interests of children and families are essentially the interests of the business – and the reason we do what we do.”