A young entrepreneur at Kaitaia College who's been selling ice blocks to his peers at lunchtime has found his enterprise blocked.
Lennox Goodhue-Wikitera, 17, has been keeping students cool over the summer with his Juicie treats since 2022. But the school's board of trustees now says he can only sell the frozen juice if he hands over all profits to the school and doesn't take a wage. That's despite donating around $3000 to the college of money made by the enterprise.
"In late 2021, the canteen at our school closed down, and I had this lightbulb moment, walking around thinking I could really do with a Juicie right now because it was so hot and there was no canteen then the light bulb moment came - why don't I just sell them?" he said.
"The next day, I turned up with a chilly bin in tow. I started selling them for about $1.50, sold a few at first, every day I kept selling more and more."
The then 15-year-old hadn't sought permission from the school, so he was sent to see the principal, who allowed him to continue selling.
He'd purchase the iceblocks before school from the nearby Kaitāia Pak'nSave to sell at lunchtime.
His most lucrative day was when he sold 800 on Athletics Day.
But the following summer when Lennox asked to sell his ice blocks again, he had to seek permission from the Board of Trustees.
"They didn't support the proposal because the school has a duty of care to ensure food health and safety requirements are met, so I ended up doing some research," said Lennox.
The board also pointed out it was for a personal venture, not for fundraising.
Lennox began reviewing policy on the Ministry of Education website and sought further advice over the phone.
"They said there are no issues with selling Jucies. It's prepackaged," he said.
Lennox took his findings back to the board, challenging their decision, but got nowhere, eventually deciding to change his proposal to a fundraising model.
The board gave him the green light and Lennox was back selling ice blocks again last year.
In addition to the ice block sales, Lennox set up a business buying and selling imported products online and in his store, Bali Boutique, on the main street of Kaitāia.
He'd also attended a free IRD workshop in Kaitāia to learn more about his tax responsibilities. IRD staff later visited him at school during lunchtime to help him file his tax returns. He now has an accountant who does that for him.
Acting Principal Alexandra Kingi said she's so impressed by Lennox's drive.
"He just keeps coming back for more. He's an amazing kid who can work with lots of different groups of kids, not just having customer service skills and being polite but to be a true businessman, to be able to read his audience, those are some amazing skills that lot of people have to work on for a long time."
However, this year Lennox ran into problems once again with his ice block sales when the board asked to see a breakdown of his business expenses and saw Lennox had been paying himself a wage.
"So profit is revenue minus expenses right, so there are lots of expenses involved in running this enterprise, for example I have to purchase chilly bins, I have to use my petrol to drive to Pak'nSave, there's power in the freezer at home, also my time is expensive so I charge a very fair remuneration for myself," said Lennox.
The board stopped him from selling at school again.
1News contacted the Board of Trustees, who, in a statement, congratulated Lennox on his business presentation and the fundraising donations he'd made to the school community.
"The school fundraising policy was the foundation for the board's decisions. Fundraising is for the purpose of raising funds for students' activities as opposed to personal profit. Any requests from the Board to Lennox aligned to our school policies," chair Diane Laurenson said.
Lennox has since been given permission to "fundraise for the school" under supervision several days a week, but all profits must go to the school. He will also now have to use the school Eftpos machine as opposed to his personal one.
Lennox says it's disappointing.
"I'll continue to fundraise, but I'll tone it down to maybe one or two days a week because I won't get a wage, but I will keep raising money for the school."
He said most of his focus will now be on his import business.
Last month Lennox travelled overseas for the first time to Bali on a business trip to source products to bring back and sell.
"It opened my mind to more opportunities, I've been buying there for over a year so it was good to go there and actually meet the suppliers and visit the factories," said Lennox.
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