Bright notion tops enterprise awards

Abundant Life School company #InstaHealth aims to promote healthy eating through Maori business concepts. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Student companies making cashew nut paste, health food with a Maori business model, and a simple yet effective way of finding light switches in the dark were the winners in the Young Enterprise Scheme's Trade Fair on Saturday.

The 50-plus companies from high schools all over Northland taking part in the scheme this year have to come up with a product or service and a business plan, and by the end of the year will have made a real-life profit or loss.

The Trade Fair at Kerikeri's Turner Centre was a chance for 23 of those fledgling firms to market their products and themselves. to the public. They were judged on the quality of their stalls, promotional material and financial controls, and most importantly on selling techniques.

This year's winner was 17-year-old Nicholas Fewtrell of Kerikeri High School, assisted by 16-year-old Lara Thorne, of Paihia. His company, Innoluminate, produces glow-in-the-dark stickers to help people find light switches. Nicholas said glow-in-the-dark switches were available overseas but were expensive and required the entire cover to be replaced. His solution was to produce stickers from photoluminescent vinyl to fit neatly over a switch.

He was applying for a patent and hoped to sell his product via The Warehouse.

Second place in the judges' awards went to #InstaHealth, a company from Kaitaia's Abundant Life School promoting healthy food and employing a Maori business model. Team member Brenda Dos Santos, 18, said their meals contained Maori kai such as pork and watercress, and the company involved whanau and raised awareness of the need to eat well.

Springbank School's Cashew Company placed third in the judges' awards and first in the customer choice award.

The company imports cashews from a mission station providing employment in Mozambique and turns then into a peanut-butter-like paste at a Northland macadamia processing plant. The product's branding is based on the Mozambique flag and team members dressed in rasta colours with beanies and false dreadlocks.

Second place in the customer choice award went to Innoluminate.

Scheme coordinator Gary Larkan said the Top Energy-sponsored fair was "all about selling".

"If you had kids just sitting around doing nothing, they're not going to score highly, no matter how pretty the stall looks."