After months of hard work the winner of the 2016 BEDMAX Young Entrepreneurs (BYE) at St Mary’s C of E Middle School Belford has been announced. This was after much deliberation by the panel of judges from local company BEDMAX shavings Ltd whose job it was to judge the groups of students and their inventions.
The champion team was the creators of the ‘iHold’, a bespoke iPhone holder carved out of wood. The winning team was made up of Charlotte Walton, Max Humphreys and Imogen Blythe.
The Year 8’s from St Mary’s took part in the competition to create an innovative product out of wood with a unique selling point. They had complete market research and devise a brand identity to attract the attention of potential buyers for that product.
Out of the seven teams there could only be one winner, the hard task of choosing came down to the BEDMAX panel; Tim Smalley Managing Director, Alex Adams Office Manager and Barbara Huddart Marketing Manager. The only criterion which was set, was that their product idea must be made from an element of a pine log, such as the bark or the log itself.
Tim Smalley, commenting on why this team was chosen as the winner, said: “We specifically looked and judged the teams on their product design, presentation, research, branding, marketing, costing analysis and target audiences of each of the products. The design of the iPhone holder and the research the team had put into it was outstanding.
“In fact all the teams had put a tremendous amount of work into the entire project, and the standard far exceeded our expectations. They really took on board that this was an environmentally friendly as it is using a waste product from the BEDMAX bedding process.”
The winning team won the coveted BYE Trophy and £200 in book tokens for their school.
The winning team said: “The project was extremely enjoyable and helped us develop both teamwork and leaderships skills.”
The other teams items that were all fought so hard to be crowned the BYE winners were; Wax Max – a table candle holder, Crafted Coasters – table coasters, Rustic Frames – picture frames, Kitchen Max – a utensil holder, a Geocache and an iPhone speaker.
Mr Tony Palmer, Senior Science and Technology Teacher at St Mary’s, said: “I am delighted with the amount of time and effort each team put into their design and business plan. The project ticked all the boxes for us in terms of challenging the children and making full use of all their skills. I would like to take this opportunity to thank BEDMAX for organising this competition for the children, it has been very informative for them, but most of all fun! We have enjoyed working with them on this.”
BEDMAX was established 15 years ago and is the UK’s largest producer of tailor-made shavings for horses. Their products, BEDMAX, LITTLEMAX and HOTMAX are sought after the length and breadth of the county. BEDMAX already recycle any waste products from the bedding making procedure with the formation of their fuel briquette HOTMAX.