NEWS | Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Spiral clinch HSBC Young Enterprise Malta Company of the Year Award

Spiral, a team from Junior College with a Camping Tents & T9 in Maltese, clinched the annual award for the HSBC Young Enterprise Company of the Year 2008. A year of solid team work by nine Young Enterprise Malta (YEM) companies came to end at the final night of the Malta Competition at the Hilton Hotel.
Spiral, who were presented with the coveted trophy by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Louis Galea, will go on to represent Malta in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, between the 23rd and 27th July. There, they will compete for the European Company of the Year Award.
Waterwise from St Aloysius College with their water saving device kit, were first runners up, while second runners up were Switch from De La Salle College competing with an electronic translator as their product.
The other teams participating were Maniark – Junior College (Laptop Stand), 9 to the 0 – Junior College (Maltese Board Game), Centiva – St. Martin’s College (Child I.D. Tags), React – St. Aloysius College (Petrol – Magi), PRO – De La Salle College (PRO Bags), and Emulsify – Verdala International (Cooking Recipe Books).
All the participating teams delivered sound presentations brimming with creativity, enthusiasm, energy and passion for their respective brands. Led by Karl Gouder as Chief Executive Officer, Young Enterprise Malta aims to introduce and develop entrepreneurial education programmes in as many schools and organisations as possible. Through team building, and a personal experience of how business works, the organisation strives to build confidence and competence in future business leaders by developing suitable character traits. Young Enterprise offers youngsters a great learning experience which will serve them well for many years to come.
YEM Chairman Josef Camilleri awarded the John Harper Award, given each year for excellence and outstanding performance, to Chris Cutugno and Bjorn Azzopardi from Think Design Ltd in the first category and to Jon Vella from Sound Systems Ltd in the second category. Mr Cutugno and Mr Azzopardi are former Young Enterprise Malta participants who went on to put entrepreneurship in practice by successfully setting up their own IT company. Sound engineer Mr Vella has supported YEM all along its 20 years.
During the Malta Finals, other awards were also presented for different categories of skills in running a Young Enterprise Company:

• Best Business Plan - Switch
• Most Responsible Business - Waterwise
• Best Product / Service - Spiral
• Best use of Innovative Product - Spiral
• Best Implementation of Quality System - Pro
• Best Implementation of Marketing and Sales Strategy - Pro
• Best Use of Technology - Spiral
• Best Presented Financial Statements, Accounting System and Profitability - Maniark
In his address, Alan Richards, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC, main sponsor of Young Enterprise for the last 9 years, praised all the teams for their efforts and their innovative products. He highlighted the values of integrity, entrepreneurship and personality when embarking on new business ventures as well as the fact that Young Enterprise provide a valuable experience for these young achievers. “HSBC has supported Young Enterprise for nearly a decade now because our Bank is keen to encourage the young generation of Maltese entrepreneurs.”
More information on Young Enterprise Malta is available by calling 2124 4991 or by sending an email to [email protected]