Eastbourne youngsters show off their business skills in the Beacon

The teams launched their businesses before Christmas and the trade fair provided a great opportunity to sell directly to the public and gain precious new skills, as well as finding out how popular their products were with the shoppers.

For a picture gallery of photos from the events, click here

Two teams from Gildredge House, Vertex and Scribble, sold eco-friendly gardening kits (seeds, soil, pots and even name tags for the seeds) and their own colouring and word search books to enable users to take a break from stress and electronic entertainment.

Unum, the 15-strong team from Eastbourne College had their own range of jewellery on sale for Mother’s Day and other treats with the motto One Chain, One Link, Two People.

The fourth company was New Oceans from Mayfield School for Girls who are passionate about saving the oceans by “Saying NO to Plastic pollution”. They were selling double wall metal and plastic water bottles and biodegradable paper straws that don’t go soggy.

Unum won the award for Best Stand and New Oceans won the award for Best Customer Service, while Vertex, from Gildredge House, scooped the Mystery Shopper award.

A spokesperson said, “Each of the teams is now working on their presentations, company reports and other elements of the competitive part of the Young Enterprise Company Programme with more confidence and the trade fair successes behind them.”

These will be presented at the local finals at the Amex Stadium on April 25.

If you missed the trade fair, you can buy some of the companies’ products by going to www.ye-marketplace.org.uk the new sales platform where Young Enterprise companies across the UK can sell their products online.

For further details about the charity in the local area go to www.yeew.org.uk