Schoolboy Sol sets up sweetie business after Dragon’s Den-style pitch

After a presentation from the nine-year-old boy, his mum and uncle backed the sweet plan.

By Louise Glen

March 30 2023, 11:45 am

Sol Murdoch with some of the sweets he sells. Image: Wullie Marr / DC Thomson.

Roll over Sir Alan Sugar – you’ve got some serious entrepreneurial competition from a nine-year-old Aberdeenshire boy with a very sweet tooth.

Aberchirder Primary School pupil Sol Murdoch set up his sweetie business, Project Sweet, a month ago and he has already made £500 profit.

But the plucky pupil said if his career doesn’t take off, he can always be a photographer.

Sol’s mum Holly said he came downstairs one day with the idea of starting a sweetie business to help earn a bit of pocket money and since then he has gone from pick n’ mix to mega boxes.

Quality control

Holly, a quality controller and delivery driver for the business, said: “We moved from Portsmouth four months ago and we have really enjoyed settling into Aberchirder.

“There is only one shop and I think that Sol saw that as an opportunity. He came into the living room one night with his idea of starting a sweetie business, and it has all been developed from there.

Sol has a huge selection of sweeties on offer. Image: Wullie Marr / DC Thomson

“Sol gave me and my brother a Dragon’s Den-type presentation – and we invested. It has just kept getting bigger and bigger.”

Sol is now setting up his stall at markets, and has even had an order from “down south” for 47 bags of sweeties.

His mum, whose day job is as a veterinary pharmacist, said: “He has already made £500-worth of profit – and that’s before his website has been launched.”

Sol has a range of 70 different kinds of sweets and makes up pick n’ mix, liquorice boxes, party boxes and even cinema boxes.

One of his most popular lines is a cone – filled with sweets.

Sweetie cones are the biggest seller

She continued: “He is just a completely normal kid, he is doing really well at school and he plays his Xbox and plays out with his friends – but he has a business as well.

“He is quite incredible.”

Sol describes his sweetie business as “really good”.

Sol Murdoch who at the age of nine has set up his own pick n mix sweet business. Image: Wullie Marr / DC Thomson.

He said: “I am settling in really well to Aberchirder and everyone is my friend. Some of the boys from school come over to play and help me make up my sweet cones and boxes – they seem to like it as well.

“Things are going well, and I hope I will be in this business for a long time. But if it doesn’t work out – then I would like to be a photographer, and I have already started taking photos.”

Saying his favourite line was probably the sweetie cones, and that all the sweeties he had were popular, he added: “We can always pull in a few more sweets if they are needed.”