Andover founder Fleur Cushman has won an Influential Woman award, and her CurraNZ supplement took two product titles. Updated November 2026.
Andover entrepreneur Fleur Cushman, founder of the blackcurrant supplement brand CurraNZ, has received Innervision Global’s Influential Woman Award in Science-Led Nutrition Innovation for 2026-2027.
The personal award follows two titles this year for the company’s CurraNZ Original product: Product of the Year: Sports Nutrition at the NutraIngredients Europe Awards in Barcelona in May, and the same title at the NutraIngredients-USA Awards in Chicago in July. The company also won in Asia in 2025. Its website counts six NutraIngredients Sports Nutrition Product of the Year wins across Europe, the USA and Asia, along with four European Specialist Sports Nutrition Awards.
“Building CurraNZ has meant learning an enormous amount, navigating setbacks and keeping faith with a long-term vision,” she said.
“We chose to build the business around research into our specific extract. That takes patience, investment and strong relationships with scientists. To see both the product and my work recognised this year is enormously meaningful.”
From horse racing to blackcurrants
The company’s account of her career starts a long way from supplements. She grew up on a farm. Her mother was a dietitian and biodynamic farmer, and her late father was a pharmacist and supplement formulator. She worked in thoroughbred racing and breeding before moving into sports journalism, a career that took her to the United Arab Emirates and later to the UK.
After more than 15 years in that industry, the company says, her father introduced her to emerging research into New Zealand blackcurrants. She founded Health Currancy Ltd in 2011.
The £30,000 batch
In 2016 a manufacturing problem forced the company to throw away its first large-scale production batch, at a loss of £30,000 of start-up capital.
“What kept me going was the emerging research and a strong sense that we were onto something worth pursuing,” she said. “I did not want to ‘die wondering’. We learned from the mistakes, changed our approach, manufactured again and moved forward.”
The research and the All Blacks
The company says its research programme now spans 12 years. Its release says the programme approaches 70 published studies of its proprietary extract, while its website gives more than 60 peer-reviewed publications. The subjects include exercise performance, recovery, circulation, metabolic health and gastrointestinal responses to exercise in the heat. The release lists what has been studied rather than the results. CurraNZ Original contains a standardised New Zealand blackcurrant extract, which the company says provides 105mg of anthocyanins per capsule.
The company says its products have been supplied to the All Blacks through the UK supplement company Healthspan since 2018. A lifelong supporter of the team, Cushman regards that as a particularly personal achievement. More recently, the company says, it secured a major contract in the United States and a place among that organisation’s top 50 most wanted brands. Its website also names the triathletes Lucy Charles-Barclay and Hayden Wilde among the athletes it has supported.
A family business run from a spare room
The company has a presence across seven countries, according to its award profile, but the team is small. Cushman’s husband, Dave, manages UK warehousing and fulfilment, often starting in the early hours and returning to orders in the evenings and at weekends. The couple run much of the business from their home, where the spare room serves as an office. Her brother Scott oversees operations in Australasia, and business partner Tom Wilson, a former accountant, provides commercial guidance.
“When you spend much of your working life at home, focused on the next task or challenge, it is easy to overlook how far you have come,” she said. “This award has reminded me that the contribution is being noticed, even when the work itself feels largely unseen.”
She shares the credit. “There is a small team behind this business, but a much wider community has helped us grow,” she said.
“These awards belong to the researchers, our team, our partners and the customers who have supported us. I hope our story also encourages other women building businesses from a small starting point. You do not need to begin with a large company to pursue an international ambition.”
What comes next
The company says it is preparing for further expansion, particularly in the United States. Its plans include an investment round to increase manufacturing capacity, develop new products and strengthen its finished-product and ingredient businesses.
Her advice to other women starting out, according to the award profile, is to seek financial and commercial guidance early, choose business partners carefully and allow enough time and resources for growth.
Sponsored feature for CurraNZ, the New Zealand blackcurrant supplement brand of Health Currancy Ltd in Hampshire.
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