A YOUNG businessman who appeared on Dragon's Den and received backing from Duncan Bannatyne has been named entrepreneur of the year at the Scottish Asian Business Awards.
Umer Ashraf Malik, impressed judges for the way he has built up his chain of iCafe coffee shops in Glasgow.
He won the award ahead of Rita Poddar, of Glasgow dental practice Peppermint Studios, and Ranjit Dhillon Anderson of Edinburgh-based chauffeur firm Scoot.
In October Mr Malik, 28, secured a promise of £80,000 funding from Mr Bannatyne on the BBC television show.
Mr Malik intends to grow to nine outlets across Glasgow, then start to look at a franchising model.
Judges picked Tony Hussain, who has interest in properties and restaurants including Cafe India in Glasgow, as businessman of the year, while Dr Rabinder Buttar, founder of clinical research firm ClinTec International, was named businesswoman of the year.
Muzaffar Yousaf, from accountancy firm Yousaf and Co, was given the lifetime achievement award for his services to the Asian business community in Scotland.
Glasgow firm KA Javid & Co Accountants, which also has offices in London and Karachi, Pakistan, won the overall business of the year.
The online special offer service Today's Great Deal was named new business of the year, while Kirkcaldy-based commercial insurer Insure Smart won the small business prize.
The retail business of the year was Glasgow's Imaginex Furniture & Interiors.
Usman Akram, corporate sales manager at Mercedes Benz Edinburgh, took the rising star award, while advocate Usman Tariq, a member of the Ampersand stable, was young achiever of the year. Other winners included Subway franchisee Nabeed Ramzan, Habib Malik of Islamic Relief and Atif Bashir from Smile Max Studio.
Yasmin Mahmood, operations manager of event organiser Oceanic Consulting, said: "We have had a phenomenal response this year."
Prize categories and winners
Young Achiever of the Year sponsored by The Prince's Trust Youth Business Scotland: Usman Tariq
Rising Star Award sponsored by Minuteman Press:
Usman Akram (Mercedes Benz Edinburgh)
Franchisee of the Year sponsored by Coca Cola:
Subway (Nabeed Ramzan)
The Community Award sponsored by Coca Cola:
Habib Malik (of Islamic Relief)
Creative Mind 2012 presented by Saffron Events UK:
Luqman Javaid & Zubair Malik (Sugar Rush)
New Business of the Year sponsored by KKMJ:
Today's Great Deal
Small Business of the Year sponsored by FSB:
Insure Smart
Retail Business of the Year sponsored by DRB Solicitors:
Imaginex Furniture & Interiors
Best Professional in Business presented by The Herald:
Atif Bashir (of Smile Max Studio)
Lifetime Achievement Award sponsored by Strathclyde Police: Muzaffar Yousaf
Businesswoman of the Year sponsored by Bank of Scotland:
Dr Rabinder Buttar
Businessman of the Year sponsored by Bank of Scotland:
Tony Hussain
Entrepreneur of the Year sponsored by Grant Thornton:
Umer Ashraf Malik (of iCafe)
Business of the Year sponsored by Carlton International:
KA Javid & Co Accountants
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article