A young enterprise team from Kirkwall Grammar School has been crowned this year’s Scottish Company of the Year by Young Enterprise Scotland.
The company, named Estrela, is based on Orkney and produces lamps featuring some of the iconic locations and features of the Orkney isles.
Director Calum McArthur said: “Back in August last year we sat down and discussed various ideas on what we wanted to do. We decided we would like a project that would link into Orkney heritage. One of the team mentioned the idea of creating lamps which we explored further.
“Initially some not so great prototypes were produced before we settled upon the final design.
“There are three lamps in our series. The first to be released was the Brodgar lamp which is iconic and easily associated with Orkney.
“In the run up to christmas and new year when the Ba’ football match takes place, we produced our limited edition lamp with only 150 available for public sale. Lastly, to represent the Italian Chapel, which was built by World War Two prisoners of war, we produced a lamp as the third in our series.”
He added: “There are 12 of us in the team who were all sixth year pupils last year at Kirkwall Grammar School. A lot of the team are now going off to university but we are hoping to keep Estrela going.
“We have had talks with various Scottish landmarks about using their locations on new lamps, so we are hopeful to keep the project going. This is not the end for Estrela.”
After winning the Scottish finals, the group of youngsters progressed on to the UK finals. Although they didn’t scoop the top prize, Estrela picked up the FedEx Express Access Award, praising the company’s community engagement throughout the project.
Mr McArthur said: “We make all but two elements of the lamps so a lot of work has gone into the project. It has been really good to come together with a team of folk, who were not necessarily friends beforehand, but we are so thankful to the Orkney community.
“We are also grateful to our teachers, business advisor and all of our partners.”