They are the future business leaders of Britain.
And they got the Royal seal of approval in Huddersfield.
The Duke of York returned to the University of Huddersfield to present his own Young Entrepreneur Awards to 19 student businesses from universities across the North of England.
The Royal guest, who is Chancellor of the University, was at the Queensgate campus for more than two hours to present current students and recent graduates at universities across the North of England with awards marking the success of their start-up business.
Nineteen businesses, created and pioneered by over 30 young entrepreneurs, had been selected by their university and each business will receive The Duke of York Young Entrepreneur Award.
The presentation, fittingly, took place at the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre at the University of Huddersfield, which provides a home to a number of fledgling businesses and start-up companies.
After the formal presentation the Duke mingled with the students and chatted to many of them.
They included Huddersfield award-winner Stephen Bond.
His coffee liqueurs business, which began life as part of a student’s Enterprise Placement Year, won yet another major prize.
Stephen had already won the grand-final of a major national ‘young entrepreneurs’ competition entitled TestTown and has been granted a first prize of £10,000.
His business is called Panda’s Kitchen, and combines his interest that he had pursued since the age of 18 in devising recipes for flavoured liqueurs with his business acumen.
Since its official opening in Huddersfield’s Byram Arcade less than 12 months ago, Panda’s Kitchen has gone from strength to strength.
A University spokesman said: “The event went very well and there were some excellent stories among the many award-winners.
“The Duke seemed delighted to be back in Huddersfield.”
The event marks the fourth presentation of the awards by the Duke, who is committed to the encouragement of enterprise and entrepreneurship amongst young people across the country.
He was welcomed to Huddersfield by the Lord-Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Dr Ingrid Roscoe, and was welcomed to the campus by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan.
The Duke also presented the latest winners of the Community Initiative Awards, that he set up in 1998.
To date more than 300 community projects across Yorkshrie have earned awards.
