In May 2009, standing on a crowded train, inspired after collecting their ‘One Water’ National Enterprise Award, the Birkdale ‘One Water’ winning team decided it was time to expand their One Water Tuck Shop enterprise. They immediately campaigned to have the Senior School adopt the ‘One Water’ Charity to build a Birkdale School One Water Play pump in Malawi.
To boost their sales they decided to merge their efforts and proceeds from the Tuck Shop with another social enterprise run by Ben Campbell in S2, by attending his evening Lower School discos as well as other evening school functions, hence tapping into other markets to increase their sales.
They also entered into the second part of the challenge called the ‘One Big Idea’ supported by the Co-op, Global-Ethics, Doug Richards and Duncan Bannatyne. The team researched a product the Co-op could sell that would support a cause in Malawi of their choice. Instead of finding one product they found: One Cards, One Curious, One Music, One Bracelet, One Ringtone and One Mac Nut turning their enterprise into a conglomerate called One Empire.
One Mac Nut, which turns macadamia nuts from estates in Malawi into healthy snacks, won first place in the eleven and under category. This was an amazing victory as over 35,000 individuals, colleges, schools, and businesses participated in this national challenge. The profits from One Mac Nut once commercialised, will be sent to build a special Enterprise School near a Macadamia Estate close to Thyolo where the Birkdale School Play pump will be built. One Empire hopes to help the huge youth unemployment faced by so many Malawi children by sharing their enterprise resources and experience by talking with the Macadamia Estate manager in Malawi and several major UK food distributors.
