ICE does the business for two young brothers from Tramore. John (14) and Brendan Kelly (12) are already climbing the free enterprise ladder with contracts to supply pubs, hotels and even their local racecourse.
Their mini-business is typical of many devised by the schoolchildren of Waterford as a result of the Schools Enterprise Programme, which sets out to encourage and train young entrepreneurs. The county finals, just completed, represented a weeding out of some 200 projects involving about 600 students who have been working on their small business projects since last October.
The Kellys operate the Tramore Ice Company, which claims to be the only ice company in the south-east and is engaged in the production and supply of bulk ice to various customers.
"The idea of running an ice business came to us while having a meal in a hotel which could not supply ice with our drinks," says Brendan. "A few days later an opportunity came up to buy a secondhand ice machine."
Now they have organised a storage shed, plumbed and wired for two machines, and they can produce 140kg of ice cubes every 24 hours. Their sales from August to January exceeded £1,300 and, although still in first year at school, they are determined to develop the business.
The boys' teacher at CBS Tramore, Mr Joe Conway, says the school has been encouraging participation in the Young Entrepreneurs competition for several years. "It's a great confidence-building exercise," he commented.
Another venture which has the look of a winner is the business set up by three girls from St Augustine's College, Dungar van, to produce and market stylish and comfortable fleece hats.
Aimee Fennell, Maria Conroy and Sandra Foley buy in the special fleece, "100 per cent spunpoly lambskin", from Manchester, design the range of hats and contract out the sewing of the final products to skilled local seamstresses. They have five basic designs, ranging from pixie hats to ski-type hats, all identified by an eye-catching logo and strong colours.
The transition-year schoolgirls call their mini-company "Madhatters", and market their products through local sports shops. "Our product is promoted mainly by our customers," says Maria.
Five boys, also pupils of St Augustine's, produce attractive screen-printed cotton shopping bags. The bags are reusable and eco-friendly and the boys, who already have some bulk orders, are keenly aware of the potential boost to their business from the impending levy on plastic bags.
A ONE-MAN enterprise is that started by John Frisby (16), who is in transition year at De La Salle College, Waterford. From a farming family near Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny, he already had some experience of metalwork and did a welding course at Waterford Institute of Technology last year. Now he makes sturdy ornamental steel brackets for hanging baskets and markets them through garden centres and co-ops.
A group of boys from Tramore CBS decided to exploit a plentiful local coastal resource - seaweed - and set up their mini-company, Dunabrattin Dillisk. They collect the dillisk at low tide and also net fish when the tide comes in.
At present they market just the dried dillisk and fish, but they are carrying out intensive research into about 15 potential derivative products, from jam to cosmetics. Micheal Murphy has taken up art and plans to design a logo for the products, and the boys are also building their own website.
In collecting the edible seaweed they are conscious of environmental factors - "we respect the ecology of the place, we rotate the picking," says Micheal. They made more than £1,300 profit last year and are determined to persist with the enterprise - "we definitely want to take it further."
Five girls from Newtown School, Waterford, combined their talents under the title Ceol na hEireann to produce a tourism/cultural show involving music, dance and storytelling. It has already been staged in the city.
Also in the cultural field is the interactive guide to Irish set dancing produced by Marie Dineen and Anne-Marie Smith of Stella Maris school, Tramore, under the title, Ceili le Cheile. They offer a booklet and a tape with traditional accordion music for set dancing, and they have had inquiries on the Internet from as far away as Australia and America.
The ideas that have sprung from the enterprise scheme are many and varied.
A group from St Declan's Community College, Kilmacthomas, compiled a local telephone directory; four pupils of the Sacred Heart of Mary Secondary School, Ferrybank, are marketing attractive calendars using historic local photographs; an enterprising girl from Stella Maris, Tramore, devised an "Adopt-a-Rock" business producing small decorated stones.
All the groups had to put together a business report for the competition, covering marketing, production and finances. They explain how their businesses develop, how they overcome setbacks and how they deal with business matters from day to day.
The scheme is sponsored locally by Waterford city and county enterprise boards, by Waterford Area Partnership, Waterford Leader Partnership and Waterford Chamber of Commerce. A selection of the projects will now progress to the regional finals in Enniscorthy next month and the national finals will be held in May.
Some may fall by the wayside, but others seem sure to develop into full-scale commercial enterprises. But the stimulation of enthusiasm and enterprise awareness is the important factor, rather than the competitive element - "we regard all of the participants as winners," says Mr Conway.