A group of business-minded students from Alleyne’s High School beat teams from 49 other schools to be named the best Staffordshire company in this year’s Young Enterprise challenge.
The Sock Tree Company now go forward to the West Midlands final at Birmingham University next month, following in the footsteps of Versaleaf from Alleyne’s, who made it all the way to the national finals last year.
Sock Tree held off a strong challenge from One Green Bottle from Wolstanton High School at the county finals evening held at Staffordshire University’s film studios in Stafford.
This year 50 schools from Staffordshire took part in the Young Enterprise Company programme, which enables young people (typically between 16 and 18) to set up a company and trade with the public before liquidating their company at the end of the academic year.
Just four of the teams made it through local qualifying competitions to the County Finals, with Qualitea, the company from The De Ferrers Academy, Burton, and Simply Vintage from Landau Forte Sixth Form Academy in Tamworth also taking part.
Each of the teams had to write a company report, set up a trade stand and be interviewed by the judges, who were drawn from the commercial and public sector, before giving a presentation summarising their results and experiences. What was particularly daunting for the students this year was that the presentations were streamed live over the internet.
The Sock Tree Company produce fun creative animals from socks – and in recent weeks the company has diversified into a range of different products, all on the same theme. One Green Bottle also has an innovative product – a bottle clock, utilising recycled beer bottles from the Titanic and Lymestone breweries. Qualitea produced a novel product – mugs incorporating a biscuit holder, and Simply Vintage were selling vintage clothing with a modern twist.
In addition to the main award Sock Tree were also judged to have given the best presentation during the evening, and won the Financial Management and Sales and Marketing Awards. One Green Bottle won both the Production and Innovation Awards.
The Link Teacher Award (which is based on submissions by the young people) was presented to Adam Reynolds (Wolstanton High School) for his dedication to the team. The Business Advisor Award went to Jo Clay (from Pertemps) who worked with Qualitea.
All photos by Joshua Cope.
