Driving a winning concept, Year 13 Commerce students Patrick Anderson and Louis Hastie have taken the honours during the College business incubator programme with their high-end mobile vehicle detailing start-up, Alpine Autos.

Their impressive elevator pitch has wowed all three PwC New Zealand Old Boy judges, Mike Crawford, Ben Williams, and Luke Alderton.

Commerce teacher Logan Ball has praised the boys’ commitment and analytic skills, noting that the judges have been “most impressed by Alpine Autos’ attractive profit generation”.

As Patrick Anderson explains, the idea for Alpine Autos comes from their past experience.

“We both have had unofficial jobs cleaning family members’ cars, and friends’ cars,” he says. “From this, we had the idea from businesses in the United States to make the car cleaning business a mobile one. Meaning that we clean cars at the customer’s desired location, rather than at our own set location. We put these concepts together to form our business.

“With Alpine Autos, we hope to achieve a strong reputation for good customer service and honesty. Customers are our No.1 priority, and our strong focus on achieving this goal has been fundamental to our success. If we decide to expand, we will hire staff so that they work on our frontline and Louis and I can spend maximum time on the business.”

Alpine Autos is among a trio of concepts presented to the judges at the PwC offices in Christchurch, with students delivering promising elevator pitches.

“All boys in this programme have displayed strong, entrepreneurial spirit, courage, and dedication to their business outcomes,” Logan says. “The business incubator programme provides an authentic learning experience, with boys mentored by successful members of the College community while being exposed to commercial environments.”

An innovative ski carrier, Lifties has also caught the eyes of the judges. Developed by Harry Beaglehole, Murphy Dargue, Matty Hickman, Henry Thin, and George Matthews, Lifities securely carries poles and skis, adhering to its slogan ‘skiing made easy’.

Meanwhile, Power Packs – a specialist sports support, and nutrition-crammed product created by Thomas Wright, Truman Heath, Jack Baker-Sherman, and Jackson Garry – has also packed a punch.

The Power Packs team has already created a website, marketing collateral, and a financial plan for the gym bag jammed with products to support and nourish gym users.

“One of the main things that aided us was using our business mentors to help us work through the process,” Thomas explains. “We also kept each other accountable. We are all very passionate about our business and believe in our product and that has made us strive to work hard and complete tasks in order to start Power Packs.

“The idea for Power Packs came from a lot of brainstorming within the group. We noticed a problem for people starting out at the gym and getting into fitness and not knowing what was a good product to support their programme. It can be daunting for someone new to a fitness regime to see all the products on offer. We have ended up with a pack that kick-starts the fitness experience and offers a wide range of products.

“With Power Packs, we hope to enable people of all ages who are new to gym-style training. We also aim to help less fortunate people get into fitness. We have started a partnership with a local charity and people who purchase our product can choose to donate a pack to a charity that also helps people get into fitness.”

All the students have developed their concepts as part of their NCEA Level 3 Business Studies classes.