Page 27 - royal-times-15-16

Latch Attach

In September 2015, we were told more orders from buyers
about Mini Companies by our Business outside of Cavan. Our
teacher, Mr Robertson. On hearing this, product was very popular
John Clarke, Steven Armstrong and I came up with and to date we have sold
the idea of Latch Attach. The idea came from personal to 14 counties in Ireland!
experiences of John Clarke and Steven Armstrong. During We next attended the
the summer, while working diligently on the tractor, the Student Enterprise
men would over-heat. This led to the development of a competition in the Slieve
latch that would hold open the door of the tractor enough Russel Hotel. We are
to allow fresh air to circulate around the cab, but not so proud to say that we won 1st place in the senior category
much as to allow the door to break. and will now represent Cavan in Croke Park in the All-Ireland
The product is a 200mm box iron latch designed to work Finals.
with the door locking mechanism of the tractor to keep the We also attended the Get-Up and Go competition in
door ajar but stable, thus allowing a breeze into the cab Athlone. Here we won 1st place in Innovation, Marketing
while driving at no risk to the cab. and Quality. We were also chosen to represent the area in
We started production in October 2015. With the help of our the national final in Naas Co. Kildare. We are very excited
technology teacher, Mr Patterson, and the over-looking of for these coming competitions and for the future of
our production manager Steven Armstrong, we developed Latch Attach.
high quality products for our buyers. Our
first sales came from a Christmas Craft Fair in
December 2015. We did not make many sales
but word got out about our product and it
became increasingly popular. We also sold
more over the Christmas period. In February
2016, we attended the Cavan Machinery
Show. Here the device proved very popular
among farmers and we sold over 200
products! After the machinery show, we got

Student’s Guide to the Universe

At the beginning of TY as usual, beginning of year as the other mini companies had products
we must think of different ideas to sell all through 2015 but now we have our product and
to base our Mini Company simply need to sell them. If you know anybody starting
around. After thinking of a few college or boarding away from home, perhaps this book
ideas, such as an international would be a great gift for them?
canteen. We decided on writing Not to mention we had the opportunity to go to an
a book, A Student’s Guide to the Enterprise Competition in the Slieve Russell Hotel. Alex
Universe for students written by Filmer represented our company during an interview there
students. With the teamwork on Cavan TV. Whilst at the competition we were judged and
involved with everybody in our unfortunately our company did not succeed that day, but
mini company, James Crosfield, nevertheless we learned a great deal from the experience.
our company manager and financial director, Danny During of the our project to the end, A Student’s Guide To
Mckeon and Maria Muntal , our marketing directors, Alex The Universe, was a fantastic project to work on and could
Filmer our sales manager, Daman McDowell our IT manager, be continued in the future.
Grace Komolafe our manufacturing director
and myself Struan Macleod, head of design
the product was a success.
The process was long and drawn out but we
finally managed to write a completely original
space themed satiric book by ourselves after
many months of editing and writing and
sourcing a publisher.
The book went on sale during the onset
of 2016, we were at a disadvantage at the

The Royal Times 2015-2016 27