Rewined, a Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise company of 12 De La Salle College students, is the winner of the HSBC Company of the Year 2010 Award. With its product made of recycled wine bottles, which are flattened under very high temperatures and used as a platter or spoon rest, Rewined also got awards for CIM Best Marketing and Sales Strategy, Best Future Potential; The Adpro Excellence in Quality and The Best Presented Financial Statements and Profitability. Company member Andrew Borg also landed The Smart Achiever of the Year Award.
The team members received the award from Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Land Jason Azzopardi and will represent Malta at the European Company of the Year Award in Cagliari, Sardinia, from 20-23 July.
During the final awards night of the Junior Achievement Young Enterprise, held at Hilton Malta, recently elected Member of Parliament Karl Gouder, who has also always been very active in the organisation was presented with the coveted John Harper Award for his outstanding personality and achievement as the first Young Enterprise member to be elected to the country’s highest institution.
The John Harper Award, named after the founder of Young Enterprise, is the only award given at the discretion of the organisation’s chairman.
Rhymed from St Edward’s College was first runner up with its Maltese nursery rhyme book ‘Taqbiliet Maltin Ghall-Kbar u z-Zghar’; Re-Crea8, from St Aloysius College was second runner up with the Re-Hydr8 plant-watering component that lights up when the soil is dry.
Re-Crea8 also clinched the Misco Best Business Plan Award and the Playmobil Best Use of Technology Award.
St Aloysius College’s 3Squared won The Most Innovative Product/Service award and The MTV Mobile Best Presentation Award for their ‘Send Me Later’ SMS delay programme application for mobile phones. Another award went to St Aloysius College’s Blazco, which won The Farsons HR & Operations Award with its Eco-Log product – a sustainable alternative to firewood without harming the natural environment. Koncentrik, also from St Aloysius College, received The Wasteserv Most Responsible Business Award for its eco-friendly earphones case made out of recycled ice tea plastic bottles.
The other participating teams were Triplezero, from St Aloysius, who presented an Easychop wooden unit which brings together the most used kitchen utensils; Junior College’s E-Nova, who proposed colourful LED in between two mirrors to create a tunnel effect; SyMec, from St Martin’s College whose Jotters notepads are made of recycled paper with a unique bullet point feature; another Junior College company, Simple Solutions whose handmade Dryer Balls are made of wool and used in the tumble dryer to reduce the time clothes take to dry; and St Aloysius’s Glazed which presented Boxular – reused material and innovative glazing techniques to produce green boxes and coasters.
In his address, Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Chairman Josef Camilleri thanked Lorna Farrugia who has been managing the organisation for the past year for her sterling work and guidance to the students. Brian Tortell, HSBC’s Head of Marketing, said it gave him immense pleasure to note that the support of HSBC, Young Enterprise’s main sponsor for the last 11 years, was being put to good use. “It is an investment in the business acumen of our budding entrepreneurs who will be responsible for growing Malta’s economy tomorrow,” Mr Tortell said.