Francis Douglas Memorial College Year 13 students Cooper Grainger, 17, Kendrick Torres, 18, and Ethan Salve, 19, took out the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme Taranaki regional final with their business Fundamentally Fungi, which makes a mushroom jerky snack.

The team’s original idea was to make mushroom growing kits, Grainger, who is having a gap year in 2025 before going to university to study law, said.

“And then we tried and tried and tried and we realised how hard it was going to be and that we probably wouldn't get anywhere throughout the Young Enterprise business year.”

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