Basking Babies founder Carla Davison is celebrating a remarkable night of recognition after being crowned both Woman Franchisor of the Year and Overall Woman in Franchising at the 2026 Encouraging Women into Franchising (EWiF) Awards.
The national awards celebrate women making an outstanding impact across the franchising sector, recognising leadership, innovation and dedication to supporting others. Carla’s double win reflected not only the continued growth of Basking Babies but also the supportive, community-led culture she has built across the franchise network.
Over the last 18 months, Carla has led one of the biggest transformations in the brand’s history, including technology and systems, alongside the launch of new programmes designed to diversify income opportunities for franchisees. During that period, Basking Babies saw direct web traffic increase by 43% and customer bookings rise by 14.3%.
For Carla, however, the recognition was about far more than business growth.
“Winning both awards felt absolutely incredible and completely overwhelming,” she said. “Empowering women is at the heart of everything we do at Basking Babies, so to receive this recognition from EWiF felt incredibly special indeed.
“I’m totally devoted to our franchisees and genuinely want the very best for every single one of them. We’ve built such an amazing network of women who love what they do. This award reflected all their hard work and the brilliant people around us – including our head office team and suppliers.”
Over 150 franchising professionals travelled from across the UK to applaud the winners at the EWiF awards event which, this year, was held in conjunction with the British Franchise Association’s annual Empowering Women in Business conference at the Leicester Tigers Stadium.
The judges also recognised Carla’s resilience and leadership during a period of significant personal and professional change, while continuing to evolve the business and support franchisees across the UK. With new franchisee development initiatives, wellbeing support and collaborative opportunities, Basking Babies is designed to help women build successful, fulfilling businesses around family life.
