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Young Entrepreneur Awards Launched for 2016

04 March 2016, 09:36 AM
  • Fine food distributor Cotswold Fayre is launching its annual Young Food and Drink Entrepreneur of the Year award in order to help food entrepreneurs make their business a success
Young Entrepreneur Awards Launched for 2016

The competition is inspired by the growing number of new businesses being started by young entrepreneurs; according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs, over 26,000 UK businesses are run by professionals aged 21 and under.

The winning food and drink business will be awarded £1,500 to help grow the business as well as monthly mentoring sessions with Paul Hargreaves and support from Cotswold Fayre’s in-house designer to build a strong brand identity.

Paul Hargreaves, chief executive of Cotswold Fayre said, “Despite the UK having a healthier economy that is providing jobs at established businesses, we are still seeing more young people seeking to start their own business.

“Young people are increasingly interested in the provenance, quality and nutritional content of the products they consume. It is great to see some of this active interest being translated into new product innovation.”

“Starting a business myself 17 years ago, I completely appreciate that the hurdles to starting a new business can be daunting. The unique thing about our start-up support scheme is that we are not only offering a small amount of monetary support but I am also mentoring the winner throughout the first year to help them to accelerate their business plan.”

Last year’s winner, Jerome Jacob, founder of PHROOTI said: “Winning the Cotswold Fayre Young Food & Drink Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 award has helped me achieve industry recognition, helped with my start-up costs and, most importantly, given me an invaluable mentor in Paul.

“In the six months since winning, Paul has acted as a calm sounding board. This has been crucial in getting my product range to market (at the moment PHROOTI is stocked in 20 outlets) and I very much look forward to the next six months of working with Paul to progress the business further.”

Applications for this year’s awards open on 1st April and close on 30th June. The application form can be found on cotswoldfayre.co.uk .

Applications open on 1st April and close on 30th June. The application form can be found on cotswold-fayre.co.uk

Image: Paul Hargreaves, chief executive of Cotswold Fayre with last year’s winner Jerome Jacobs of Phrooti

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