Two University Students Win rights for a 12-month business permit in the city
Hamish Heard
HEART-SHAPED strawberries and eco-art will be the order of the day when two of Melbourne’s smallest shops open in the CBD next year. Two entrepreneurial university students have each won $1200, a 12-month business permit and the right to transform a disused news-paper sales pillar into a mini shop for a year.
As winners of Melbourne Council’s City Pillars Challenge, Melbourne University’s Josh Engwerda and RMII” s Leyla Acaroglu outshone their peers in a quest to find imagin-ative and environmentally-friendly business ideas for the pillars.
Mr Engwerda will use his allocated pillar to launch his own unique brand of heart-shaped strawberries, called Seduberries, when his shop opens at the corner of Swanston and Collins streets in December. His shop, called the Green Wall Garden will also market an innovative water-saving hydroponics system for developing gardens in small spaces. “They are clean, require no soil, no watering and the plants grow much faster than conventional garden-ing,” Mr Engwerda said.
“I was really interested in this competition because I’m interested in green inventions, also because these city pillars are the perfect location to display my product to city people.”
ecsity students Mn rrights for a 12-month busness perm
Ms Acaroglus business, also at the corner of Swanston and Collins streets, is called the Eco Innovators Pillar and will provide a space for environmentally-friendly designers and artists to sell their wares.
Thirteen of the pillars were in-stalled in the 1990s but many have since closed due to an increasing number of convenience stores open-ing in the CBD. Melbourne Council economic de-velopment committee chair Carl Jetter said the competition had at-tracted high quality entries.
“Josh and Leyla have been re-warded for their original concepts and credible business plans,” Cr Jetter said. “
Now we are giving them the op-portunity to translate their ideas into a real-life business situation by providing them with a high-profile CBD location.”
