food tetailers. ‘Our grovith rate to date has been scarily fast,’ says Toby, ‘but we believe that there's ‘a great deal more to come, Our ambition is to become the primary player in a new fruit snacks category across Europe, within the next four years.” The key to their success, says lan, is probably that they've touched @ central nerve in the public psyche. ‘We arent health freaks, but we worry about what our children eat — | think its a concern a lot of people share.’ c In just three years, Ben Reilly's business has grown ffom one man in a Ford tansit ven to a company with @ £4 milion turnover, It was the combination of a new-born baby and the ‘what if.” factor that convinced Ben that he should leave his secure job with a major ailine and go it alone. ‘I couldn bear the thought of getting old and wondering what could've been’ says Ben. ‘But as my family cesponsiblties grew, it would get more dificult to leave a secure job. It was like now or never” He told his omployers of his ambitions and they Suggested that he use his flair within the sphere of activity he knew best ~ managing aeroplanes. 'My joo was to handle the turnarounds: fuelling, cleaning and stocking of the planes. it had already struck me that there was an enormeus amount of waste occurring because of the need for speed Everything got thrown away — the headphones, and all the unused bits and pieces from tho cusiomer packs.” Mark suggested thet all the unused goods could bbe repackaged and most of the headphones: cleaned, straightened, given new foam earpieces and reused. He convinced the airline to let him have a go, and made sure that cleaners wero detailed to start sorting aeropiane rubbish into two bags - teal rubbish and anything that was recyclable. Ifthe seal is broken on anything, we chuck it, but if its unbroken, it gets repackaged, Most of the headphones are easy to refit." A friend told him of a local disabled group that was looking for work. He offered thom the job of repackaging. ‘It's worked remarkably well and what began as a one-off arrangement is now a company ‘commitment. When we began, our aim was to turn around 3000 items a week,’ says Ben. Today his ‘company reconditions 350,000 a week - saving the airline 40% of whet they once spent on kits for passengers, Nancy Brewerton was well aware of the frustration of the teachers she saw every day as ‘an information technology adviser for a locel education authority. A former primary schoo! teachor, Nancy boliovod thet use of the computer and the Internet should and could be integrate into the educational curriculum. She started tinkering at home with an idea for an Internet resource cenire that would help chiddien Use the net for education both et home and al school. It scon became more than @ hobby, and Naney went into partnership with her friend, Sally ‘Ayers, an expert in marketing and advertising, to develop the idea, With the helo of seven private investors, they set up a website. Version one was launched in January; version two, with upgraded dosign and navigation, followed in October. At first, they allowed schools to use the site in return for user reports from teachers, which gained them both Credibility anc ideas for refinements. But the ukimate key to its success, says Nancy, is that i's interactive and user friendly. ‘It allows children to use the computer in a purposeful way, geared to learning at school! The site doos net take adveriising and relies on subscriptions, which Sally and Nanoy started saling wo months ago. alteacy 700 schools have signed up. Ea TEST 2, PAPER 1