LOYOLA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT STOCK EXCHANGE PROGRAM AND PREGEL CANADA TEAM UP
Friday, May 15, 2009
High school students at Loyola High School located in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) teamed up with PreGel CANADA to compete in this year's 2009 Student Stock Exchange program. Creating Dolce & Gelato, CEO Drew Steeves, and his seven other fellow teammates were given the task to create a small company that would sell a product or service to their high school student body over a 3 day period during the month of April. Inspired by their recent trip to Italy, Drew and his teammates decided to take on the challenge of running a gelato company, reaching out to PreGel CANADA, a subsidiary of PreGel - a global specialty dessert ingredient company headquartered in Reggio Emilia, Italy, to help make their project a success.
Since PreGel CANADA's Professional Training Center, which offers free training to anyone interested in pursuing a career in the gelato, pastry and specialty desserts business is located in Toronto, PreGel CANADA customer Tutto Freddo located in Montreal opened their demo kitchen to the eight competitors, allowing the group to use their machines to create the gelato the day before the event. Donating the main ingredients and recipes necessary to make their gelato along with measuring containers, spatulas and serving cups, PreGel CANADA gave Dolce & Gelato the necessary tools they needed to get up and running from there.
To their delight Dolce & Gelato was able to successfully sell a variety of different flavors all produced from PreGel's bases, Traditional Pastes and Fortefrutto® during their 3-day business run. Dolce & Gelato sold out of their entire 100kg stock of gelato during the 3-days, and on the first day, they sold their quota of 30kg in less than one hour. And with great success Dolce & Gelato raised over $480 that will be donated to the Canadian Breast Cancer FoundationTM. In addition to that, The Student Stock Exchange program awarded Dolce & Gelato the entrepreneurs of the year award, as well as the awards for best marketing, best presentation in front of the panel of judges and most original product.
The Student Stock Exchange is a registered non-profit educational organization that fosters the entrepreneurial spirit amongst our youth. Since 1995, the program has been helping students transform theory into practice by taking a hands-on approach. Students are expected to develop an innovative idea/product, form a company and ultimately sell their product to the public (i.e. the general student body). For more information, please click here.
