A schoolboy has been threatened with suspension after raking
in £14,000 to pay for his University fees by selling sweets to pals in the
playground.
Budding businessman Tommie
Rose, 15, has made a fortune by selling chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks to
pupils at Buile Hill High School, Salford
He has even employed two mates
to help run his business, paying them a princely £5.50 a day.
But now Tommie’s business
empire is under threat because the school says it breaches their strict
healthy-eating policy and he has been accused of running a ‘black market on
sweet treats.
Teachers say he could face
suspension if he carries on smuggling Lucozades, Dairy Milk bars and Doritos
through the school gates.
Tommie, from Ordsall, started
selling the snacks three years ago after being inspired by TV shows Dragon’s
Den and The Apprentice.
He racked up 10 days of
suspension from his old school, the Oasis Academy in Salford, as punishment for
his trade in September 2011.
So he moved school and took
his business elsewhere, which put his daily earnings of around £60-70 into a
trust fund to pay for a business degree from a top university.
Tommie told the M.E.N. he has
his sights set on a top business degree from prestigious Oxford or Cambridge.
Parents Gary, 33, an office
worker, and gym manager Tracy, also 33, describe themselves ‘council estate
born and bred’ - and say they would struggle to pay £9,000-a-year tuition fees.
Gary said: “He’s a typical
teenage boy who saw what he wanted and worked hard for it. He realised that if
you want to get ahead in business and in life, you have to start at a young
age. At first we thought we should stop him selling the sweets, but then we saw
that he was doing it properly, legally and sensibly so we left it to see what
would happen. I could only dream of making that sort of money at his age.
“It’s a shame the school are
trying to stop Tommie. According to his business model he’d have earned £2-3k
by the end of the year, which would have made him the £18,000 he needed to pay
for University. He’s always thinking ahead and I think that shows an
unbelievable knack at his age.”
Tommie gets his stock from
bulk discount stores and sells them to classmates at a competitive mark-up.
But James Inman, Headteacher
at Buile Hill Visual Arts College, has accused Tommie of running a ‘black
market’ of sweet treats.
He said: “We admire this
pupil’s entrepreneurship but school is not the place to set-up a black market
of fizzy drinks, sweets and chocolates. We have extremely high standards and
with our healthy eating policy we don’t allow isotonic drinks, fizzy drinks and
large amounts of sweets for the good of our children.
“Our high standards are set
out to pupils and their parents at the start of the school year.
Source: MEN
No comments:
Post a Comment