Future of Food Entrepreneurship

Huge congratulations to our boys who entered the Future of Food Entrepreneurship (sponsored by FUEL10K) at Winchester College, hosted by  Makyth Ventures, Winchester College’s student entrepreneurship & innovation hub. The hub is aimed at fostering a culture of innovation, inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and preparing students to thrive in a world of rapid change. Two Sherborne teams were in the top three winning teams. A Sherborne team also won the 'most popular vote'!  

Twenty schools from across the country approached to enter after the first round and 12 teams were invited to the final in October. Each team went through a series of workshops and learned core idea generation and presentation skills around the topic of  it’s the year 2043, what should FUEL10K launch to tackle future global issues or opportunities? The three finalist teams in the line up below were all from Sherborne.

Below are the judges on the day who are significant figures in the food and drink industry. The judges were hugely impressed by the pitches and the format of the day “by such young minds”. 

• Alex Beckett – Global Food and Drink Director at Mintel Research. Alex regularly presents consumer and innovation insights to the world’s biggest food and drink companies. He writes about cutting-edge opportunities and also provides input for the annual food & drink trends. Additionally, Alex manages the creation of Mintel’s hugely popular Food & Drink Year of Innovation annual reports.
• Laura Davis – a Commercial Consultant to many of the UKs most successful start-up food and drink brands. She learned her trade at the Finsbury Food Group and plays a significant ‘behind the scenes’ role advising fast growth brands such as Tyrrells Crisps, Candy Kittens & FUEL10K. Laura is an expert at creating momentum for brands by developing a concise message that tells your story.
• Adam Leyland – Leader and Editor of The Grocer Magazine since 2006. A well-known figure in the food and drink industry, Adam makes frequent appearances on TV and radio and regularly hosts conferences, webinars and awards. His knowledge is as broad as the sector itself: from health and obesity, to online and rapid delivery; from sustainability to entrepreneurship; from farm shops and challenger brands, to the giant supermarkets and multinational suppliers. He hosts the prestigious Grocer Gold Awards each year which this year were held at the Royal Albert Hall.
• Rebecca Oliver-Mooney (ROM) - Head of Commercial at the Co-op (3,500 stores), Drinks, Frozen & Community Buying & leads an incubator programme, known as ‘The Apiary’, a scheme which is designed to search for, support and mentor innovative and exciting smaller-scale suppliers and brands. Rebecca has worked for a number of different companies including Mars, Nestle, Kellogg’s, Muller and Biotiful Dairy. Rebecca is extremely passionate about putting the customer at the heart of everything Coop does, focusing on data and insight to create visionary strategies that centre around customers’ wants, needs and desires. Empowering creativity, change and doing things differently she prides herself on driving accessible, mindful inspiration for their customer bas
• Paul Abley – Head of International Innovation and Food & Drink Specialist at the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) – Paul is a significant protagonist within the British Governments “High Value Opportunities” (HVO) programme which aims to provide UK businesses with the intensive support they need to access large-scale overseas procurement opportunities. These opportunities can be worth billions of pounds and range from major infrastructure, manufacturing and engineering through to big supply or value-chain opportunities.
• Jason Kerr - Co-founder and Head of Product Innovation at FUEL10K. He has built a phenomenal reputation in the food and drink industry having worked on new food projects most of his career. Earning significant experience at Kraft-Heinz he quickly moved on to Tetra-Pak helping the company launch numerous projects. Jason then spent time with Jamie Oliver helping to develop his retail food range before co-founding FUEL10K. Jason brings real insight into innovation and how to get things made.

Winchester College's Head of Makyth Ventures comments:

''Congratulations to all of you who made it through to yesterday's final. Each of you should be incredibly proud of your achievements throughout this intensive experience. You rose to a new and unfamiliar challenge, engaged your creative problem-solving skills and embraced "futures thinking" to such an extent that it left the judges truly inspired and impressed. So a big well done for all of your hard work. As a result, I hope you come away from the experience with newfound confidence and excitement to face tomorrow's challenges and embrace the opportunities that lie ahead.

My warmest congratulations  go out to our top three teams as well as the team that received the most guest votes.''

WINNER: 23/17+ - Tomas Reese and William Gane - Monkton Combe

RUNNER-UP: Cric't - Hector Kennerley (L6g) and Bamber Mauleverer (L6b) - Sherborne School

THIRD PLACE: Wrap-n-Roll - Jayden Graham-Douglas (3a) and Lexi Whitfield (3a) - Sherborne School

POPULAR VOTE: Team Chickpea - Benjamin Brady (4d), Ivo Finney (4d), Leo Mauleverer (4d) and Hugo Tyrell (4d) - Sherborne School