Young British Entrepreneurs Scoop The Pool
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Dimension, a company set up by a group of A-level students, is proof that Britain’s youth, despite its poor image, has entrepreneurial drive in spades.
Students at the Fortrose Academy were given an opportunity, through Young Enterprise UK’s company programme, to set up and run a small business for eight months and they jumped at the chance. Little did they know that the decision would eventually lead them to London and Stockholm.
“We focused on the sort of issues that we found important – environment, health and education – and then looked for a suitable business opportunity,” says Patrick Boyer, the managing director.
Having decided that their business would promote healthy eating to young children, the team came up with the idea of using recipes, a magnetic rewards chart and a storybook about a cartoon character, Harry, to encourage primary school children to eat their five-a-day.
“Scotland’s poor record in fighting obesity is one of the reasons we opted for this project,” says Alana MacPherson, the creative director.
With the obvious interest in their product and a decent balance sheet, Dimension decided to enter the local Young Enterprise Innovation Awards competition – and won. They then won county and regional competitions to earn the right to represent Scotland in the national finals at the Park Lane Hotel in London.
Last week Dimension was named as the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Award winner for 2008, having seen off stiff competition from 11 other regional finalists and 3,000 teams of other young people who had also particpated. Their prize is a trophy, £1,000 and the chance to represent Britain in the European Junior Achievement Awards final in the Swedish capital this weekend, where the company’s financial results, teamwork, marketing strategy, communications, product development and administration policies will be under scrutiny.
