Labl.it wins Tech SME of the Year
On Thursday 15 October, Labl.it was named Tech SME of the Year at the South Coast Tech and Innovation Awards 2026.
It’s our second win at these awards. In 2024 we took home Tech Startup of the Year, so coming back two years later and winning as an SME is a nice marker of how far we’ve come.
From startup to SME
Growing from one category nomination in 2024 to three category nominations at the same awards says a lot about the last two years. Our customer base has grown quickly, our team has grown with it, and we now support over 4,000 kitchens across the UK.
None of that happens without people who care about getting the detail right, and a product that kitchens keep choosing to use. A big thank you to Shaw Gibbs for judging the category, and to the organisers at The Business Magazine for a brilliant evening.
In case you haven’t seen us before…
Labl.it is the all-in-one food label printer built for commercial kitchens of every size. We replace handwritten labels with a fast, compliant, and incredibly simple system: 3-click printing, full EHO and Natasha’s Law compliance baked in, and no hidden costs. From independent cafés to multi-site restaurant groups, over 4,000 UK kitchens now trust Labl.it to keep their prep organised, their teams moving faster, and their EHO inspections stress-free.
Proud to be a South Coast business
We were founded here in the South in 2021, and we’ve been based at Southampton Science Park since 2022. It was good to see some familiar faces among the night’s sponsors, including University of Southampton Science Park and our park neighbours Spectrum IT.
We were also happy to support the evening’s charity partner, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, through the raffle. We didn’t have much luck with the prizes, but it’s a cause we were glad to get behind.
Thank you to our team for the work that got us here, and to our customers for pushing us to keep improving. Every feature we’ve shipped started with a chef, a GM or a kitchen manager telling us what was getting in their way, and so we can confidently say we wouldn’t be where we are today without them.
What’s next?
We’re already cracking on with new products and ideas we hope will put us in the running again next year. There are more kitchens to reach and plenty more hospitality problems to solve.
If you run a commercial kitchen and you’re still writing labels by hand, we’d love to show you what Labl.it can do. Book a free demo to see why thousands of kitchens are already using Labl.it.
