Independent retailers based in STACK, Newcastle’s shipping container
village and creative hub, recently teamed up with Newcastle Business School to
share their enterprise experiences with students on Northumbria University’s Entrepreneurial
Business Management (EBM) programme.
Owned and managed by Danieli Holdings Limited, STACK is the biggest
scheme of its kind outside London, with a focus on supporting North East
independent retailers. It is home to a vegan nail salon, ethical clothes store,
barbershop, jewellers, pet store, coffee shop, perfumery and various bars and
eateries.
The EBM programme at Northumbria University is unique in that students
are expected to start and run their own businesses from day one.
Second-year EBM student Riccardo Burns, 26, from Italy, is currently developing
his own clothing company specialising in high-quality branded and non-branded t-shirts.
During the visit he secured a commission with the team at ‘Sushi Me Rollin’.
Describing the experience, Riccardo said: “Visiting STACK has been
very helpful for me and my team. I believe a good network is important for
entrepreneurial success and because I am an entrepreneur, even if only at a
very early stage, I am trying to meet as many business owners in the area as I
can.
“It was great to meet the fantastic chef-owners of ‘Sushi Me Rollin'.
They have commissioned us to re-design a t-shirt as part of a branded merchandise
range for their growing fan base. I hope our first collaboration will trigger
many others.”
The visit to STACK was part of a week-long boot camp involving a
number of workshops and visits across the city designed to develop students’
business skills through building new contacts with established entrepreneurs,
providing vital insights into how to make a business work and growing their own
business ideas.
Kellie Forbes-Simpson, lecturer in entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy
at Northumbria University, explains: “Many of our students are running
businesses within the retail and leisure sector.
“The aim of collaborating with STACK is to encourage them to network
with local businesses to gain
insights from personal experiences, whilst emphasising the benefit of building
strong networks by speaking with other businesses and professionals in the
region.
“We hope that introducing some of the entrepreneurs and growing
businesses at STACK will foster some strong, mutually beneficial relationships
with our students.”
The EBM programme at Northumbria University focuses on independent, real world
learning, with students working to launch their own businesses and learn from
their successes and mistakes. Commercial ideas are developed as a central
aspect of the programme and students are encouraged to explore how to manage
and grow their businesses independently. The programme is based on a Finnish
model of education, called Team Academy, and Northumbria was one of the first
two universities to pioneer this approach in the UK.
Kevin Walker, operations director at STACK, said: “Since opening the STACK
it has become a real social hub in the centre of Newcastle and with the
returning students, we are seeing a lot of them using the numerous facilities
that we have.
“We actively encourage the local community to get involved with STACK and
our students are a very important part of that community, so we are delighted
to be able to help out and support them in their enterprise projects.”
The EBM programme is part of Northumbria’s award-winning Newcastle
Business School; recognised as Business School of the Year in 2015 and more
recently, the first North East Business School to win the Small Business
Charter for services to SMEs. Newcastle Business School at Northumbria
University is globally recognised for delivering some of the best business
management education in the UK.
To find out more about available courses, including the EBM course, go
to: www.northumbria.ac.uk/study-at-northumbria.
