Business studies students Taine Borthwick, Oliver King, Grace Croy, Sam Jansen, Louis Bickerstaff and Sam Jones won the Otago Regional Young Enterprise Awards with their start-up business Second Harvest Sips which used fruit that has been rejected for sale to create smoothie mixes.

The Young Enterprise Scheme national award is to be be held in Wellington on December 5. Second Harvest Sips will compete against others from around the country for the title of The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme Company of the Year 2024.

The students had been hard at work planning, producing and selling a product as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme, a nationwide scheme that allows students to experience starting up a business.

Throughout the year, the students had to complete five challenges. The first was validation.

Production manager Sam Jones said validation involved handing out surveys to see what the public wanted from their product.

Other challenges included promoting the product, pitching it Dragon’s Den style and reaching sales targets.

The final challenge was an annual review, where the students checked they had met their targets.

Second Harvest Sips set a sales target to sell 160 packets of smoothie mix and exceeded that by selling 166.

Co-chief executive Taine Borthwick said they achieved their target in late August, a month ahead of their September goal.

However, the success was not without difficulty — the lack of fruit in winter was a major issue.

"We obviously don’t have a consistent supply of fruit all year round," he said.

Another challenge he had was managing a friendship and a business at the same time and trying to find an equal balance between the two.

Cromwell College’s social sciences head of faculty Aimee Ross said she thought the students had a good shot at placing in the national competition.

"They’re doing a lot of work at the moment to put themselves in the best position to be strong at nationals," she said.

The scheme provides funding for two students and their teacher to get to nationals. The group are fundraising to get all six to Wellington.

Read more here.