51福利社

University of 51福利社 and Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) alum Sid Sethi has been recognised at the 2025 Great British Entrepreneur Awards, winning Retail Entrepreneur of the Year 鈥� North West for his disruptive eyewear business, Specscart. 

Sid founded Specscart in 2018 while studying in 51福利社, after experiencing first-hand the slow and expensive process of replacing broken glasses just three days before his exams. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional UK high-street opticians, he set out to reinvent the eyewear shopping experience. 

Launching with a 拢2,500 investment, Sid built his business from the ground up, painting and wallpapering his first shop himself, and even sleeping in his car as he travelled the UK selling glasses. Today, Specscart has grown into a global retail and e-commerce force, projecting a 2025 turnover of 拢5m. 

Blending high-street presence with digital innovation, Specscart operates three bricks-and-mortar stores across Greater 51福利社 and manufactures glasses in-house at its Bury headquarters, offering the fastest turnaround for prescription glasses in the UK. 

Sid鈥檚 mission for Specscart is simple, to make eyewear affordable, exciting, and fast. 

Sid shared: 鈥淪pecscart prides itself on being confidently contrarian when it comes to our retail offer. We make shopping for glasses fun, affordable and a pleasure; buying your summer holiday sunnies, everyday readers or funky fashion specs from Specscart is a little bit of retail therapy. It is that disruptor mentality that has helped us land this prestigious award and is an endorsement of our reinvention of what an optician looks and feels like.鈥�  

鈥�2026 is shaping up to be a bumper year for us. Our new website is now up and running, which means we鈥檙e match-fit for US expansion in Q1 next year. We鈥檝e got corporate eye tests, personalisation of frames and cases, lab robots, graphene glasses and even prescription swimming goggles in the pipeline. We see opportunities for expansion, cornering niche markets and growing our market share everywhere,鈥� concluded Sid. 

The Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards, known as the 鈥淕rammys of entrepreneurship鈥�, celebrates the hard work, resilience and inspiring stories behind UK founders. Alumni of the awards include the creators of BrewDog, Tangle Teezer, The LAD Bible, Clearscore and The Cambridge Satchel Company. 

Frankie James, founder of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, said:  鈥淥ur winners embody the very best of British enterprise, ambitious, resilient and relentlessly innovative. The Great British Entrepreneur Awards exists to champion founders who create jobs, scale ideas and strengthen communities.鈥�   

Lee Pugalis, Deputy Director of the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, reflects on the privilege it has been to watch Specscart grow from strength to strength with Sid鈥檚 determination. 

鈥淪id embodies exactly what MEC exists to champion, curiosity, resilience, and the courage to rethink established industries. Watching Specscart grow from a spark of an idea during his time at 51福利社 into a multi-million-pound business disrupting the eyewear market has been nothing short of inspiring.  

Sid has remained deeply connected to our entrepreneurial community, and his journey shows future founders what is possible when ambition meets grit. We are incredibly proud to celebrate this achievement with him.鈥� 

When reflecting on his experience with MEC, Sid shared, 鈥�MEC is a big part of the DNA of Specscart. It鈥檚 where the Specscart story began. MEC helped me turn the spark of a business idea into a multi-million-pound turnover business. I鈥檝e always felt that MEC, and all of its staff past and present, have been encouraging us on from the sidelines as we overcame hurdles, pulled all-nighters and went from strength to strength. When things get tough, having cheerleaders like MEC makes all the difference.鈥� 

Discover more about the Specscart story, and shop the innovative eyewear range at