Green Elephant is East of England Young Business of 2008

Helping primary school pupils learn how to eat healthily has brought amazing success for the students of Sharnbrook Upper School and Community College, Bedfordshire as they won the Young Business of the Year competition 2008.

The team of students who formed their company “Green Elephant”, competed in a thrilling competition at Queen’s College, Cambridge against five other teams each representing a county from the East of England. The Green Elephant team has produced a book, Ollie’s Adventures, for children aged five to eight to promote healthy eating. The book combines the storyline with hand-drawn illustrations, created by one of the company’s employees and provides a sample of simple recipes and tips to follow a healthy, balanced diet. For more information, see their website: http://www.greenelephantbooks.co.uk

Says Helena Gilfedder, Managing Director of Green Elephant “the YE company programme has opened my eyes to the world of business in a protected environment.” She adds “Green Elephant will continue to run after our Young Enterprise year! We are looking forward to developing Ollie’s Adventures.”

Each of the six teams competing were made up of young people aged 14-19 who have successfully run their own companies for the past 10 months and have already won their Area and County finals. From over 4,000 young people, they were competing to become the East of England Young Business of the Year and for the chance to represent the region in the national finals later in the year.

Paul Beeson, Chief Executive Officer of Young Enterprise East of England* said “We have independent research** which shows that young people who take part in our Company Programme at school are twice as likely to start up their own company. Anyone doubting this evidence should have witnessed the event. To see what these young people have achieved is not just impressive – it is inspiring!”

Green Elephant will now attend the National Final, which is to be held at the Park Lane Hotel, London, in July this year and if they win this competition will travel to Sweden for the International Final later in the year.

Claire Denny the Link teacher at the school, said that she would definitely encourage other schools to participate “The students have learnt so much. It provides an amazing opportunity to set up a real business and actually learn by doing.”

Young Enterprise East of England is supported by businesses throughout the region and has the full backing of the CBI. As Richard Tunnicliffe, Regional Director of the CBI adds: “These young people and the many others like them taking part in this scheme are key to the future economy of this region. I can assure you, the future is in good hands! I encourage any business thinking about how it can contribute to the local and regional economy to get involved with Young Enterprise. You might learn something at the same time.”