2013 Pantrepreneurs Crowned At Old Spitalfields Market

Students from Middlesbrough College have been crowned winners of the PantrepreneurSHIP Challenge 2013, a national student enterprise competition organised by the Gazelle Colleges Group and fair trade underwear brand, Pants to Poverty. 560 students across 17 Further Education colleges were tasked with marketing, promoting and selling ethically sourced designer pants, in an entrepreneurial challenge that encouraged students to apply their creative skills and social awareness in a real-life business challenge that ran for four months from February.

The winning team, Fairwear, comprised five budding entrepreneurs from Middlesbrough College. The team stormed to victory by wowing the panel with their business plan and selling out of their entire stock of pants.Fairwear battled it out against four other college teams at the grand final at Old Spitalfields Market, where they pitched their business model to a panel made up of Ben Ramsden, founder of Pants to Poverty, Ceri Jones, head of policy at Social Enterprise UK, Helen Loveless, Enterprise Editor of the Mail on Sunday, and Anthony Johnston, curriculum development co-ordinator at the University of Arts (London College of Fashion). 34 teams attended the final at Old Spitalfields Market, where 17 sold fair trade clothing as part of the PantrepreneurSHIP final and others displayed their college’s entrepreneurial projects to the public. Some students were able to maximise their sales and raise even more money for charity by taking card payments through Intuit Pay, the mobile payments service supplied free of charge by Intuit.

Team Fairwear can now look forward to a trip to India this autumn where they will get to meet the farmers that supply the cotton to Pants to Poverty and understand the fair trade process first hand. This year’s PantrepreneurSHIP Challenge raised over £27,000, £5,500 of which will be going to support the work of the Pi Foundation. The Gazelle Colleges Group, which organised the competition, comprises 20 colleges which focus on providing entrepreneurial learning opportunities for students, and equipping them with the confidence and skills to make or take a job.

Ben Ramsden, Founder of Pants to Poverty, said: “The Pantrepreneurs were, yet again, truly sensational, demonstrating passion, drive and unerring commitment to enterprise in all the social, environmental and financial dimensions that we embrace as a business. Our winners, Fairwear, from Middlesbrough College, are the perfect example of entrepreneurship and I am positive that they will get on brilliantly with our farmers and factory workers!”

Fintan Donohue, CEO, Gazelle Global, said: “Once again, Gazelle students proved their entrepreneurial ability, and it was inspiring to see teams from colleges across the country come together to celebrate the work of the students and the businesses they have built over the past four months. “As a social enterprise challenge, the PantrepreneurSHIP challenge gets to the heart of what Gazelle is achieving: giving young people the opportunity to learn vital commercial skills in a real business environment and to understand the importance of doing business in a sustainable way.”

Matthew Griffiths from winning team, Fairwear said: “I am so grateful for this experience. People have said that India is going to be hard, but I know I am going to love every minute of it.”

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