The final night of the

HSBC Young Enterprise Competition 2007 at the Hilton brought to an end a year of hard solid teamwork by 12 teams of youngsters from different schools, each running a company based on sound business models.

Visions from De La Salle College clinched the HSBC Young Enterprise Company of the Year 2007 award. The trophy was awarded by the main judging panel, chaired by Louis Giordimania, together with the Education, Youth and Employment Minister Louis Galea and HSBC Bank Malta plc CEO Shaun Wallis.

Visions also won the Best Business Plan award, presented by HSBC Malta head of marketing Brian Tortell.

Visions left Malta for Berlin yesterday, where they will represent the country in the competition for the European Company of the Year award.

Young Enterprise Malta is led by Karl Gouder as Chief Executive Officer. “It is amazing to see what this experience does to these young people,” he said.

“A few months ago, most of these same youngsters were shy and insecure. As the project progressed, they developed a confidence and strength to be able to take the stage, present their work and take on future challenges, perhaps in the fields of business and enterprise. This, of course, apart from the great learning experience of running a company from A to Z.”

Visions won the highly competitive contest with an innovative product – the K9 Cleaning Kit, that makes it easy for dog owners to clean up after their dog in an effective manner.

The K9 Cleaning Kit is a pouch that is attached firmly to the dog’s lead with velcro and buttons. It holds 15 wet-wipes, bio-degradable scoopers and a pocket for one’s personal objects such as house keys and loose change. Visions ensure a safe and easy-to-use product that is available in a number of different patterns and textures.

The Niche from Giovanni Curmi Higher was another successful company in this year’s competition, company second in the HSBC Young Enterprise Company of the Year 2007 competition and also winning the Best Stand at the Trade Fair award, which was presented by Victor Galea from the Malta Chamber of Commerce, and the award for Most Innovative Product or Service, presented by Stephanie Ceccatto from the Edward de Bono Foundation. This company produced, promoted and sold three innovative products.

The Relaxatron is a gadget that is placed on the head and moved up, down, side to side or in a circular motion to provide a gentle massage on pressure points and sensitive nerve endings on the head and neck. The Health CD Habeas Corpus features information on the welfare of the human body, including eating disorders, obesity, healthy eating, smoking, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and alternative medicine. The LED belt buckles are user-friendly and have a variety of different functions that can accept any six phrases containing up to 512 characters.

DecorActive from Junior College offered a variety of mobile socks made of zebra skin, leather, fur and many other materials of high quality, as well as mobile charm, coming third in the overall award for HSBC Young Enterprise Company of the Year, as well as winning the awards for Best Financial Statements and Accounting System, presented by Hilary Galea Lauri from the Malta Institute of Accountants, and for Best Implementation of Marketing Strategy, presented by Joe Formosa from the Malta Marketing Institute.

The Best Product or Service award, presented by Martin Galea from the Malta Federation of Industry, was won by Greeaction from Junior College. This company tried to increase environment awareness with their product, Solid-Fuel Briquettes, produced by processing newspapers into solid cubical blocks to be used for barbeques and fire places.

Fresh from St Aloysius College was the company that won the Best Quality System Award, presented by Anthony Rizzo from the Water Services Corporation. Their ydraSorb, a low-cost, reusable, mini dehumidifier that helps reduce humidity accumulation in small compact spaces such as wardrobes and book shelves, works without electricity, by using silica gel beads that turn from orange to green when saturated with water.

The award for Best Use of Technology was presented by Jacques Sciberras from the Malta Council for Science and Technology to Novus, a company from Verdala International School. Novus produced a safe and reliable battery tester, called Re-Volt, designed to show the user whether or not an AA battery has any energy left in it.

Young Enterprise Malta chairman Josef Camilleri presented the John Harper Award to Lara Vella from Fresh. This award is given annually to an individual in the competition, for excellence, determination and, most importantly, team spirit.

Karl Gouder thanked HSBC for its continual support year after year. Over the past four years, HSBC has provided more than Lm55,000 in support for Young Enterprise, as well as a number of staff members, who act as judges and advisors to the teams.

This year HSBC, as the main partner of Young Enterprise Malta, has contributed another new Lm15,000 annual sponsorship.

This will go towards the Young Enterprise Primary Education project – a pilot scheme introduced for the first time in April in six schools, to initiate entrepreneurship education on a primary level.

Next scholastic year, the Young Enterprise Primary Education project will be introduced in all primary schools in Malta and Gozo