YES for the win

Waimea College is leading the way in this year’s Youth Enterprise Scheme (YES) with business team Fruitbay Sorbet coming first in the latest challenge.

The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme aims to inspire young people to discover their potential in business and in life. It is an experiential programme where students set up and run a real business. Each YES company creates their own product or service to market.

Chief executive for the team, Lianna Godwin, says they always had the vision of creating something sustainable and environmentally conscious.

“Our product is a healthy sorbet made with unused apples from Heartland Fruit apple orchards in Richmond, and we are currently looking for a partner to help us make branded, sustainable packaging.”

The unique selling point of their Aporo+ sorbet is that it contains a health powder called Arepa which has been scientifically proven to boost cognitive function, so much so it brands itself as ‘the brain drink’.

Finance and sales director for Fruitbay, Sebastian Davey, says the sorbet can be enjoyed by everyone as it’s low in sugar and contains no dairy.

“In the Nelson Tasman region there is a real lack of low sugar treats or desserts, so we saw an opportunity to create something to meet that need.

“The bonus is that it tastes nice and is good for you, plus the pink colour inspired our logo branding,” Lianna says.

Throughout the year-long programme students complete four challenges: validation, the mid-year pitch, promotion and sales, and then submit their annual review.

The team have already passed two of the challenges in the YES competition, winning themselves $200 overall.

“We are now using the kitchen at The Food Factory in Stoke, which has been a game-changer. We bought the sorbet machine ourselves as we started out using a hand mixer and frozen apples and it got kind of chaotic. But we’ve already come a long way and can’t wait to sell at Nelson Market on 19 August as part of the promotion of our brand.”

Heartland Fruit has agreed to give the team up to 8,000 tonnes of apples a year to help them to continue to grow.

“It’s so great they are backing us as we are sure there is a place for our sorbet in local stores such as Raeward Fresh or Connings. Our goal is to have a pop-up shop there at some point.”

The next challenge is sales and promotion, with the teams angling for a place at the regional finals on 19 October.

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