Future shining for solar-seller Glights

The Life: Dubai students see Glights shining as a global business - with video.

Maitha al Suwaidi, the Glights chief executive and a pupil of Al Salam School in Dubai, has big plans. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

It may have only a handful of employees and about a dozen sales so far, but Glights has set its sights on going global.

The fledgling business, which sells solar-powered outdoor lights, was named the best student company at an Injaz-UAE competition that concluded last week.

Students were challenged to come up with ideas, study their feasibility, raise capital, write business plans, produce and sell products, and then liquidate the ventures.

After taking the top prize, the Glights "executives" said they planned to continue with the business.

"Even if we had lost this competition we would continue," says Maitha al Suwaidi, 17, the Glights chief executive and a pupil at Al Salam School in Dubai.

"We want to go global. In the future we will make … even the solar panel. We will increase the money by selling more shares and we will get more investors and bring more employees and professionals so it will be a big company, inshallah."

Glights was one of eight to make it to the final of the Injaz-UAE Company Programme Competition.

Other companies included Jeanags, so-called because it makes bags out of jeans; Century Style, which produces colourful laptop carriers; and Pick and Stick, which sells stickers that can be transferred to T-shirts.

Some of the companies achieved enviable profit margins. Among those was DXBAY, which sells shorts decorated with a UAE map, inspirational quotes from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and pictures of falcons.

The company's vice president of finance, Mohammed Khoory, who attends Al Ittihad Private School in Dubai, says the company has sold about 50 shorts at Dh150 (US$40), making a 100 per cent profit in just a few months. Those involved in the company are selling them to friends and relatives and via websites such as Twitter and Facebook.DXBAY plans to raise more capital and open a stall in Dubai Mall with the aim of eventually expanding.

Glights has similar ambitions.

The pupils initially sold shares to investors to raise Dh3,000, which was used to pay a Chinese company to manufacture the company's "green" lights. They then attracted customers by handing out flyers to shoppers in Dubai's Mall of the Emirates. The lights cost Dh220 apiece and come with a one-year guarantee.

Glights went on to sell eight solar-powered lights to a company and three to a homeowner, installing them free. It has sold 13 in total so far, achieving a 10 per cent profit over three months.

Among competition winners, Amal Omar Jaroor, 15, was named chief executive of the year for her leadership of Taif, which means rainbow in Arabic and stands for The Arab International Friendship in English. The company aims to promote local culture in foreign schools.

She says time management was one of the skills she learnt in the programme.

"We didn't allow this business to affect our studies. We also learnt teamwork, to trust each other," says the Al Salam School pupil.

Huda Serhan, the managing partner of Glowskies in Dubai, which sells paper lanterns and mood lighting, is a mentor with Injaz-UAE who works with the budding entrepreneurs.

"It's fantastic," she says. "It is a great idea to teach kids at this critical age of 16 and 17 what the business world is before they go to university."

Glights will represent the UAE against 14 teams from across the Arab world in October.