Young entrepreneur will import low cost, high quality cosmetic surgical products from China

A young entrepreneur who wants a share of the multi-million pound cosmetic surgical and products market has won the second University of Nottingham Student Business Venture Challenge.

Adam Tasker won first prize of £1,500 in the competition organised by the University’s Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI). A postgraduate currently studying nutritional biochemistry, he put forward a business plan for his company CosmiTec Enterprises Ltd, which will import low cost, high quality cosmetic surgical products from China for sale in the UK and Europe.

The products include tissue expander devices and silicone gel sheeting used in wound management to reduce the redness and swelling of scar tissue. In Europe alone it is estimated that the market for cosmetic surgery will increase by approximately 10 per cent per annum, reaching a value of £255.8 million this year.

"I’ve spent six months working in research at a Chinese hospital and at the Shanghai Winner Plastic Surgery Products Co Ltd, which manufactures the products at a fraction of the cost of those produced using the same manufacturing techniques in the West," said Adam.

"I’m confident that the market potential for a supplier of these products, such as the silicone gel sheeting, at a more competitive rate for the NHS and private clinics would be significant."

Bradford-born Adam is also aiming to involve his family in the venture. His father Clifford, with more than 28 years experience in the utilities industry, and mother Marion, who runs her own company Ragon Enterprises, are set to help out in various roles.

Adam was one of four competition finalists who pitched their ideas to a specially invited audience of business school academics and researchers and representatives of business and entrepreneur support agencies at the final of the UNIEI’s second Student Business Venture Challenge.

The judges searched for business plans with the best potential to start-up a new enterprise and become financially successful and took into consideration the commitment and enthusiasm to the business venture. A total of 23 competition entrants were whittled down to just four and the prizes were presented by the UNIEI’s director, Professor Martin Binks.

The UNIEI’s director of development, Bob Gibbs, said: "The business competition is a highly effective learning tool. It gives us the three Es — it engages, excites and is educational. Putting your own business plan together is a powerful learning experience for which there is no substitute." The two companies who finished as runners-up, receiving prizes of £500, were Looking Sideways; Matthew Hodgkins (management studies), Charlotte Morton-Howarth (digital business), Ankit Shah (law), and Edward Thomas (management studies) and Out2night; Robert Taylor (electronic computer engineering). Postgraduate Sukhbir Khela, MA Corporate Strategy and Governance, won glassware for her company idea, Visiosoft.

The finalists all received specialist advice in areas such as marketing and finance to assist them not only in the writing of their full business plan, but also in their preparation for taking these plans forward. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk