Young Food and Drink Entrepreneur of the Year

by Startacus Admin

The growth in entrepreneurship in the UK has been seen across the board, but one demographic that has produced an especially high proportion of new businesses is the young.

Take for instance this inspiring tidbit; in the UK at the moment 80,000 university students are running a business of some sort alongside their studies, and 25% of these students are hoping to make a career of it when they finish their degree.

Great news you might think, but the fact remains that only around 4% of businesses created during a student's time at university will ever go on to generate enough income to make a profit.

It seems rather a shame to us that so many enterprising individuals are taking the crucial initial steps towards creating a business, but are failing to grow and develop their ideas into something more sustainable.

Young food and Drink Entrepreneur of the Year

Young entrepreneurs are creating innovative businesses across all industries, but one area in particular that is growing in popularity, is food and drink. This is where the Young Food and Drink Entrepreneur of the Year Award could come in very useful.

In what is a notoriously difficult industry to crack, the folks at fine foods wholesaler Cotswolds Fayre are to once again host their enterprise competition which aims to provide some well deserved support to a young food and drink entrepreneur, who is trying to get a foothold in this most challenging of industries.

Following on from the success of its inaugural year, which saw Chris Hannaway of ‘Overly Premium Sports’ scoop the title, Cotswolds Fayer owner Paul Hargreaves is once again offering innovative young entrepreneurs the opportunity to give their fledgling business a boost.

“The engagement with Paul and the team at Cotswold Fayre has been very useful in helping to develop the business and in turn has helped the Overly brand to find its way forward in a crowded market” Chris Hannaway

The winner will receive £1000 towards developing their business as well as a designer to lend a hand with the branding, and monthly meetings with Cotswold Fayre founder Paul Hargreaves who will mentor them on their business plan and help support them in other areas of growing their business.

Paul Hargreaves, Founder of Cotswold Fayre said: “The growing number of young entrepreneurs looking to start a business is a fantastic sign for the fine food industry. However, the prospect of starting a business with little or no experience can be incredibly daunting.”

This is the third year that the company has delivered the startup support scheme and all team are hoping that 2015 will prove to be the most exciting and diverse competition yet!

The award is open to anyone aged 16-24 who dreams of running their own food / drink business and has a great idea that they want to take forward. The closing date for applications is June 30th 2015 so get those self-starter skates on!

• #food and drink entrepreneur
• #competition
• #young entrepreneur

Published on: 21st May 2015