The students taken to the Dubai World Expo by ArcelorMittal are…

Luxembourg, 11 June 2020 - ArcelorMittal Luxembourg announced in January 2020 its partnership with the Luxembourg pavilion present at the Universal Exhibition in Dubai and at the same time the special price that the company wanted to offer to the winning group of the mini-business competition organized by the association Jonk Entrepreneur. The price was to take a group of young entrepreneurs to the Universal Exhibition in Dubai during the event which was scheduled from October 2020 to April 2021. The sanitary crisis arrived in the meantime, the organizers of the Universal Exhibition have decided it was better to postpone this world-famous event by one year.

ArcelorMittal Luxembourg and Jonk Entrepreneuren then decided to keep this exceptional price for the students who participated this year and to send the winning group to the Middle East in late 2021 / early 2022.

An award ceremony reinvented

This year, 700 students representing 82 groups had embarked on the race to be the best mini-business in 2020. In addition to the usual challenges, our mini-entrepreneurs have suffered the full force of the health and economic crisis! Added to the usual business plan, the 17 finalist groups explained how they had managed the crisis and containment and saved their business. Distance selling and delivery have become commonplace, while previous promotions tended to favor proximity selling.

World Expo Dubai special prize

In order to win this special prize thanks to their “Best Business Plan”, which ArcelorMittal Luxembourg supports each year, the teams had to highlight the themes present in the Luxembourg Pavilion: creativity, beauty, diversity, sustainable development and entrepreneurship. The prize, then presented by Pierre Turpel in charge of government affairs at ArcelorMittal Luxembourg in January, was awarded following the deliberation of the jury of which he is also a member.

The winning mini-enterprise is ...

… FrëschKëscht! Thanks to the development of weekly boxes made of seasonal products and their choice of local products exclusively, the creators of this mini-business will have the opportunity to travel to Dubai to visit the Universal Exhibition in 2021/2022. In addition to the Best Business Plan, FrëschKëscht was voted Best Mini-Company of the Year, Best Communication Strategy and Campaign, also received the Public’s Choice and the Digital Presentation Award.

FrëschKëscht will represent Luxembourg in the European edition of the mini-business competition which will take place from 22 to 24 July.

What is "mini-enterprise" program?

The "mini-enterprise" program is an action carried out by the Jonk Entrepreneuren association in order to promote the entrepreneurial spirit among young Luxembourgish high school students and to motivate, guide and help them in a business creation project. Students are led to create and manage a business for a whole school year, coached by their teacher and benefiting from the advice of an expert speaker in economics. The objective of the "Mini-Enterprise" program is to inspire and prepare young people to undertake, innovate, create, take initiatives and be responsible.