BSCS Young Enterprise team progress to regional final

Photo of the team behind Bradley Stoke Community School’s student business Phonic Farm.

A company set up by a group of thirteen A-level students from Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS) has made it through to the regional final of the Young Enterprise scheme after being crowned ‘programme winners’ in the area final.

Their business, Phonic Farm, is a literary company which sells phonic inspired cookbooks and recipes to encourage children to learn whilst having fun.

Guided by a volunteer business advisor, Nicole Crompton, marketing manager at Dunkley’s Accountants in Bradley Stoke, the students began their Young Enterprise journey last September. Their first tasks were to decide on a company structure and assign themselves individual roles on the board of directors, along with selecting a company name and a product range.

During the first term, various milestones were achieved, such as deciding to produce a Christmas cookbook with accompanying festive cookie cutters for their first trade fair experience at St Nicholas Market in Bristol. Here, the company did extremely well selling over £130 worth of product and being placed third within the overall Young Enterprise company competition on the day.

Following this success, the company decided to continue down the recipe route and develop a set of recipe cards. A second trade fair at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway in February saw the students sell £70 of product and receive positive feedback about the unique qualities of their product.

The area final, held on 26th April at Kingsweston House in Lawrence Weston, saw the BSCS students competing against seven other teams. The format of the event involved each enterprise using a trade stand to showcase their product to a team of judges, who also quizzed each group about their company reports. This was followed by a series of four-minute formal presentations, after which the judges retired to a ‘secret room’ to make their final decisions.

Half-an hour later, everyone was called into the hall to hear the results. With a total of twelve awards on offer, Phonic Farm were delighted to be presented with the trophy for ‘innovation’ but their joy reached another level when, at the climax of the event, they were named ‘programme winners’.

The next stop for the BSCS students is now the south west regional final in Exeter in June.

Business advisor Nicole Crompton commented:

“After six months of hard work, I could not have dreamed of a more perfect result. To see the look on their faces when their name was called was priceless. I am immensely proud of them and cannot wait to see how well they succeed at the regional final. Bring it on, I say!”

Photo (r-l): Clare Manning (BSCS centre lead), Nicole Crompton (business advisor from Dunkley’s), Joseph Harbourd (operations assistant), Hannah Evans (marketing director), Thomas Frost (digital director), Lily Whyler (HR director), James Thomas (operations director), Theodore Cox (finance assistant), Billy Wilde (managing director), Enis Akgun (sales director), Thomas Wheatley (finance director), Nicholas Mitchell (CSR director) and Derek Quinn (award sponsor from Midas Construction).

This article originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine (on pages 4 & 5). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to ALL 8,700 homes in Bradley Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.

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