ST MARY’S in Calne is brimming with business potential as six students have made it through to the national finals of a prestigious enterprise competition.

The students, who are part of Luna & Sol – St Mary’s young enterprise company – wowed judges at the Young Enterprise Regional Final in Gloucestershire last week with their unique business idea.

Maddy Self, Alicia Whitaker and Helena Gray, all 17, along with Lucy Bradley, Clara Wade and Alice Wade, all 16, set up an innovative trade stand at the regional finals to promote their contemporary range of loose-leaf teas for the traditional market and fresh range of bubble teas for a younger audience.

After having an interview in front of panel of judges, the group then promoted their tea product on their stand before doing a presentation.

Maddy, who was the managing director of the group, said: “As a team we came up with the idea as we saw a gap in the market with tea for teens, although there are many tea brands out there none of them are aimed towards the teenage audience. We are all really passionate about tea and we decided that this would be the perfect product.

“We are extremely excited about the national final, we have worked so hard towards our product and are proud of our achievements. For the next round of the competition we have a lot to arrange and organise, however with hard work and delegation we are hoping that our product will reach the highest standard possible. We are also hoping to do more sales within school of our new product bubble tea.”

To take their minds off the competition, they were also treated to a tour of some of the innovations created by Renishaw, showing how high-tech engineering can be used for a wide range of applications including neuroscience, facial reconstruction, spectroscopy and the Bloodhound supersonic car.

They won three awards, including the award for Best Financial Management, Best Report and the overall award for the South West Company of the Year.

Having been crowned the best Young Enterprise company in the South West, they will now represent St Mary’s at the national final in London from July 5-7.