Europe (English)

Junior Achievement, FedEx Reward Students For Global Businesses Potential

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BRUSSELS, Belgium, Aug. 5, 2008 – The JA-YE (Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise) Europe Company of the Year Competition, held over 3 days in Stockholm, Sweden, brought together 33 student teams from across Europe who have won national competitions, to recognize the most successful student companies of 2008.


The event, hosted this year by Young Enterprise Sweden and co-sponsored by FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX), included more than 540 participants and was the pinnacle of a year’s worth of entrepreneurial endeavor, emphasizing the acquisition of solid business skills and the importance of teamwork.


At the Stockholm event, the first-ever “FedEx Global Impact Award” was presented to Team Dimension from the UK for their fridge magnet and book that encourages healthy eating for children. The FedEx award recognized the student company that demonstrated the international potential of their company as well as considered the impact such growth might have on the environment.


In presenting the award, Andrew Self, vice president, Marketing and Communications, FedEx EMEA, said, “The team created an innovative product that has broad international appeal addressing a need that transcends borders. They had the foresight to make the product available in multiple languages and showed sensitivity to the environment by creating a reusable product.”


In addition, the 33 Student companies were judged by a panel of business people on their annual reports, marketing, sales strategy, company presentation, and product or service. Each student team submitted a 10-page business plan that covered product design and development, price points, marketing plan, sales results, and sale of stock. Students also displayed their product, presented a 4-minute stage presentation, and were interviewed by competition judges.


The overall competition winner was “ImageBB”, the student team from Germany, creators of a multilingual promotional image film about the city of Böblingen and an information booklet. Announcing the winning team, Michael Lindquist, Deputy Head Master of Huddinge Upper Secondary School in Sweden, said the team “offered a good mix of excellent presentation, well-prepared interviews and speeches. They transformed theory into practice and demonstrated an eagerness to learn and to apply new learning along the way. They were a team that showed true joy.”


“The entrepreneurial spirit has literally taken FedEx around the world, providing unprecedented access to the global economy for businesses of all sizes,” said Andrew Self. “With our role in this important competition, FedEx is nurturing that same spirit in business leaders of the next generation.”


“JA is proud to join with FedEx to recognize student-company excellence. Junior Achievement programs not only teach students how to start and run a profitable business, but also reinforce the social, ethical, and environmental responsibilities of successful businesses,” said Sean C. Rush, president and chief executive officer of JA Worldwide®.


Over the next three years, regional competitions will be added in North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. By 2011, Junior Achievement will host students from around the world in the first Global Student Company of the Year Competition, crowning the world’s most effective and innovative student company.


About Junior Achievement® (JA)

Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programs for students which focus on three key content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Today, 139 individual area operations reach more than four million students in the United States, with an additional 4.3 million students served by operations in 118 other countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org.


About FedEx Express.

FedEx Express is the world’s largest express transportation company, providing fast and reliable delivery to every U.S. address and to more than 220 countries and territories. FedEx Express uses a global air-and-ground network to speed delivery of time-sensitive shipments, usually in one to two business days with the delivery time guaranteed.