Enterprising students make it look ‘Easy Teasy’ at start-up awards

Innovative students from Northumbria University have swept the floor at the Young Enterprise National awards this month.

The University’s Young Enterprise team, Easy Teasy, who represented the North East at the National finals earlier this month, overcame tough competition to walk away with ‘Best Investment Proposal’ and ‘Best Trade Stand’. Managing Director, Harry Marshall, was also commended for the ‘MAG Leadership Award’.

Easy Teasy, the creation of a group of six Northumbria students, came together in 2014 to form a premium loose leaf tea company during their final year at university while studying the Enterprise module. The team, which is made up of students from Product Design, Fashion Communications and Business courses, worked consistently hard during the module, creating a business which has flourished over the academic year. With eye- catching packaging and high-quality loose leaf tea, it has become a firm favourite in many people’s eyes, gaining increasing interest from retailers and attracting repeat orders from their ever growing customer base.

Having previously been awarded, ‘Best Start Up’ business and ‘Overall Winner’ at the Metro Centre Trade Fair back in February and carrying on their success at the Regional Finals held at the Design Centre in Gateshead the following month, the team have gone from strength to strength. Only narrowly missing out on a chance to compete in the Start-Up European Finals due to take place in Lisbon in July, the future looks extremely bright for Easy Teasy.

Three members of the team have already decided to continue with the business following graduation this summer. Joining Northumbria’s start-up ‘Hatchery’ based in the Wynne Jones Centre in the upcoming months, Harry Marshall, Luci Cowie and Tom Webb, will be working together with the University’s Student and Graduate Enterprise team to develop their business. They will be supported through the Northumbria Graduates into Business scheme, which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Cissie Tsang, Enterprise Officer at Northumbria said: “The enterprise module is an excellent opportunity for students across all programmes and faculties to come together and share different skills. It is great to see an example of students using knowledge and skills learned in their degree, meeting through the enterprise module and being supported to start their own business, creating permanent graduate employment opportunities before they even graduate.”

To find out more about any of these courses and other opportunities, register for Northumbria’s Open Days on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 June at www.northumbria.ac.uk/openday.