Award Recipients

When Barry and Katy Tong founded Stephensons Online in 2012 with just £10 and a handful of listings on eBay, they had little idea their bedroom venture would one day become one of the UK’s leading forces in online health, beauty and wellness retail, let alone a recipient of the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

Fast forward to 2025, and Northampton-based Sol Retail (the trading name of Stephensons Online Ltd) now turns over nearly £20 million a year and ranks among the top 100 Amazon sellers in both the UK and EU. Its remarkable growth, entirely self-funded without a single loan or penny of external investment, is a testament to the Tongs’ resilience, innovation and unwavering belief in the power of digital retail.

From start-up to stand out
The company’s story is a classic example of British entrepreneurial spirit. Starting with second-hand DVDs and collectable ornaments, Barry and Katy quickly realised the untapped potential of online marketplaces. They expanded rapidly, reinvesting every penny back into the business and refining their model until they’d developed a fully-fledged e-commerce engine that could be scaled globally.

In a sometimes crowded marketplace, what sets Sol Retail apart is its sophisticated fulfilment strategy, its lightning-fast international delivery (often within 24 hours, and in some cases, just one hour), combined with its unique ability to act as both retailer and strategic partner for brands looking to scale across major online platforms, including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, TikTok, Tesco Marketplace, Temu and Superdrug Marketplace.

“Right from the start, we’ve just wanted to make life easier for our customers,” says Barry Tong, CEO. “That means getting stuff to them faster than anyone else, making our listings easy and appealing to shop, and giving our partners the kind of all-in service that means they can focus on making great products. We take care of the rest.”

Championing British enterprise
It’s this agility and ambition that have earned Sol Retail the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2025, one of only 197 organisations nationwide to receive this accolade. The award acknowledges the company’s extraordinary growth in global markets, with international sales rising 224% over the past three years. By 2027, the business is predicting that 85% of turnover will come from exports alone.

Today, Sol Retail supports over 100 health, beauty and wellness brands, helping them reach an online audience of more than eleven billion impressions a month worldwide. Its clients range from emerging boutique brands looking to break into Europe and North America, to established names aiming to streamline their operations and expand into Asia-Pacific markets.

The business also boasts its own successful portfolio of brands, including The Bluebeards Revenge, Below The Belt, Scrubbingtons and Sol Beauty, which now sit proudly on virtual shelves around the globe, as well as appearing on some high street shelves too.

Scaling with smart systems
Technology has played a key role in Sol Retail’s meteoric rise. Over the past three years, the business has invested heavily in building and refining proprietary systems to handle inventory management, dynamic pricing, cross-border logistics and brand protection.

Barry continues, “We figured out pretty early that if we wanted to grow globally, we couldn’t just keep hiring more people or copying what others were doing. So we carved our own path, building smart systems to handle the time and labour-intensive activities in the background, freeing up our amazing Sol Retail team to focus on the parts that really make a difference.”

The power of staying independent
In a world where external investment often dominates business growth back stories, Sol Retail’s refusal to take external funding is particularly noteworthy. The company’s entire expansion has been powered by organic growth and reinvestment, a model that has allowed Barry and Katy to stay true to their long-term vision and retain full control of the business.

Katy adds, “Being self-funded has made us sharp and focused. We’ve always had to be smart with where we put our money and I think that’s helped us stay nimble and ahead of the game in a really competitive space.”

Giving back
Despite its commercial success, Sol Retail remains deeply rooted in upholding community values. The company has donated over £500,000 of unused or surplus stock to The Lewis Foundation, a Midlands charity that supports adult cancer patients with essential care and gift packages, and continues to support local food banks and seasonal campaigns like Northamptonshire’s Mother Christmas appeal.

It also plays an active role in the wider UK business ecosystem, contributing to key national programmes including the Department for Business and Trade, the Scale-Up Programme from Innovate UK and SEMLEP (South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership).

“We couldn’t have done this without the people around us,” Barry explains. “The local community has been a big part of our journey, so it feels right to give back where we can and hopefully, we’re showing others what’s possible too.”

The future of UK e-commerce
Sol Retail’s recent inclusion in the FEBE Growth Top 100, alongside its King’s Award win, signals that this Northampton-based powerhouse is one of the brightest rising stars in the UK business landscape. With a bold vision to reach £50 million in turnover by 2027, international expansion well underway, and a tech-first infrastructure built for scale, Sol Retail is showing the world just how far British businesses can go when they blend innovation with integrity.

Even more than this, what really stands out is the clarity of Sol Retail’s mission: to make international e-commerce easier, faster and more effective for health, beauty and wellness brands, and to do all this without compromising on quality or customer service.

As British business seeks to strengthen its global standing, stories like Sol Retail’s offer inspiration for other organisations, showing just what’s possible with a determined vision and a commitment to excellence at every step of the way.