PICTURES: Winning teens do the business in Laois final

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Senior winners are Conor and Ross Dunne from St Mary's CBS with their mini company Mooving.ie. Winning the Junior Category are Julia Koper and Kate Sareen with Key and Clay Co, at Portlaoise College.

The Intermediate winner is Áine M Barrett with ReHeart at Scoil Chriost Ri. In second senior place are Orla Carroll, Niamh Gorman, Aoibhéann O’Rourke and Annie Fitzpatrick with Retro Jerseys at Mountrath Community School. David Wajrak and Sean Ryan with ButterYouBooks from Portlaoise CBS took third senior place. 

Special Merits were awarded to: Taidhg Phelan Dalton and Eoin Delaney from ET Sports at Mountrath Community School. Katie Meredith and Cara Culleton from CharmPops at Mountmellick Community School. Emma Sheeran and Myah Walker for Cuimhní Cnaipe at Scoil Chriost Ri.Angela Babikanga, Issey Sharp and Amelia Kalich from CuddleCraft Co at Dunamase College.

Méibh Peters and Aoife Mortimer from Cookie Boutique at Mountrath Community School.Dan Bergin and Cara Mezzapelle from Recip-Easy at Heywood Community School. A Special Merit Award for Innovation was presented to CBS boys Adam Bell, Killian Walsh, Adam Riley and Scott Byrne with their business  Letsbudget.it  They are now  in with a chance of being 1 of 5 mini companies selected from across Ireland to attend a 3-day innovation bootcamp  with business mentors.

Special guests at the Laois Final included Sadhbh Wood of Bean Around,  Cathaoirleach Cllr Padraig Fleming and Laois County Council CEO Michael Rainey.

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Laois has a successful track record in the student enterprise competition. Recent national awards include team Daniel Aylward, Evan Farrell and Donil Mathew from Heywood Community School who with their enterprise Hurlr won 3rd overall in the Senior Category. 

Evelyn Reddin is CEO of  Local Enterprise Office Laois “Our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme, we wish them the best of luck on  May 8, and we will all hope to be there to support them. “What our students are learning from the programme is that with the right supports and encouragement, they can take an idea from the classroom and develop it into a real-life business”.