The Lily’s Homemade Microbusiness Competition winners were announced yesterday in Port Moresby after Microbusiness owners impressed the eleven guest judges with their special homemade products.
The Cough drops made from Bulolo (Morobe) honey, ginger and lemon, galip nut skincare products from Kavieng, and clay earrings with coconut shell that feature PNG flowers are the three winning products in the 2nd annual Lily Homemade microbusiness competition.
The winners Alma Napo for Edible category with her cough drops honey, Gracelyn Takiu for Useful category with her galip nut skincare product and Alice Kolokolo for Wearable category with her clay earing with coconut shell were announced yesterday after judges chose their products at the end of an extensive national search that yielded close to 300 entries.
One of the winners, Alma Napo was overwhelmed as she received her winning certificate.
“We dream of having this kind of opportunity. This is a big opener for some of us, so thank you,” Alma expressed.
As the winner of the Edible Category, part of Alma’s prize is that the CPL Group will work with her on packaging, labelling and product testing with a view to bringing her organic cough drops to its pharmacy and supermarket shelves.
Each category winner was also presented with K8000 prize voucher to work with sponsor Media Partners in building a professional website with attached email address for their business.
All products will also be assessed for potential stocking at Maku Gifts (in six PNG shops) and Kulture Hub (online & Cairns, Australia, with global delivery by Media Partners).
The winners were among15 finalists who gathered at the headquarters of Lily Magazine in Port Moresby, Moore Printing yesterday to display their products and pitch to the judges.
All 15 finalists received a 30-day business start-up training package valued at K2000 called BizLaunch, which will help them kickstart their marketing and budget planning and connect with lending opportunities offered through PaciFund, the packages have been funded by the Australian Government through PNGAusPartnership.
The overall winner, second and third place will be revealed in the next issue of Lily Magazine, with attached cash prizes of over K15,000 plus free business and trademark registration. The magazine will also showcase the 50 best products of the competition in a shopping guide.
Lily’s editor Margo Nugent said the idea behind the competition was to unearth the country’s most innovative and exciting products, and help connect the creators with potential customers and opportunities for strengthening supply chains.
“I am so inspired by our finalists in this competition who have all found new ways to use existing things – and that’s the very definition of innovation,” Ms Nugent said.
