Young entrepreneurs colouring in Bay in business project

Havelock North High School students Imke Kitchin (left), Kendyll Miller, Rebecca Jackson and Marleen Slabbekoorn are promoting the Bay through colouring books.Photo/Warren Buckland.

A group of young entrepreneurs are promoting some of the Bay's top spots in a unique way during the next few months.

Colour Hawke's Bay, a team of four Havelock North High School students, Marleen Slabbekoorn, Imke Kitchin, Rebecca Jackson and Kendyll Miller, have created a colouring book featuring 17 destinations located in the region as part of this year's Young Enterprise Scheme.

CEO Marleen Slabbekoorn said after bouncing some ideas around the room, creating exposure for where they lived was something they wanted to achieve.

"How awesome would it be for people to take a book back onto the cruise ship after visiting for the day and colouring in places they have just been?

"We are promoting Hawke's Bay in a very different way that has not been done before."

Each page features a well-known local business with images that best describe them for people to colour in as well as a small blurb about them.

Miss Jackson, the artist, said she would research and find different images that represented what they sold or promoted.

"I would collage the images together depending on who they were so for Rush Munroe I used icecream, for Te Awanga Wines I used wine bottles and for the gannet safari I used gannets."

Miss Jackson said it was a lot of work but the highlight for her was seeing all of her work printed on the page and ready for people to colour in.

The team recently won the Hawke's Bay Dragons Den Finals for their idea, which was one of the prestigious competitions within the Young Enterprise Scheme.

Miss Kitchen said they were thrilled with the win and pleased with the feedback.

"They were very positive and were giving us ideas on how we can expand the business and where we can go from here which was useful."

Miss Miller said the group was also commended for the "low risk business", as the project had already broken even before selling all of the products.

Businesses had to pay to be featured in the book and, despite a lot of refusals at the start, they persevered and managed to get 17 on board.

"It was definitely a challenge and after a lot of door knocking and denials we ended up having to turn people away as the word got out there and people wanted to be in it," Miss Miller said.

The group is hoping for little retailers to stock the book as well as the local I-Sites around the Bay.

The regional competition begins in October and the winning team then goes on to compete in the national competition.

These Year 12 students will be selling their product at the Hastings Farmers Market on Saturday. For more information or to purchase a book visit their Colour Hawke's Bay Facebook page or email: colourhawkesbay@gmail.com.