Students from St Patrick's create '˜The Super Sub'

Named ‘The Super Sub’, the team’s winning Sub design will be brought to life in over 80 stores across Northern Ireland this spring, when it goes on sale supported by the students’ marketing materials.

The team from St Patrick’s Academy went up against students from five other teams in the region in a head-to-head ‘Dragons Den’ style pitch in Belfast, before being announced as the overall winner. The lucky winners also bagged themselves a share of £1,000 Amazon vouchers.

Using a rigorous selection process, the entries were whittled down to just six finalists: St Louis Grammar School, St Paul’s High School, St Patrick’s Academy, St Mary’s High and two team’s from St Colman’s High and Sixth Form College, who were all asked to present to a judging panel made up of experts from the SUBWAY® brand before the eventual winner was crowned.

The team from St Patrick’s Academy consists of Celine Murray, Toma Paulauskaite and Mark McCallion. The enterprising team came up with ‘The Super Sub’, which will be sold for a limited period in SUBWAY® stores in Northern Ireland this year. The Sub consists of Chicken Breast, Bacon, Lettuce and BBQ Sauce.

Scot Heyes, a SUBWAY® franchisee who chaired the judging panel, commented: “This is the very first time we’ve brought the Design a Sub challenge to Northern Ireland and all the students did a fantastic job. The winning Sub design from St Patrick’s Academy stood out to us for its brilliant combination of tasty ingredients, backed up by a well-researched and considered marketing campaign. The team have clearly done their homework and really understand the SUBWAY® brand’s target market.

“Selecting our overall winner was a tough decision, but the team from St Patrick’s Academy clearly understood the brief and put on an impressive presentation to the judging panel. We’re looking forward to seeing their design on sale in our stores across Northern Ireland.

“As a franchise business, the SUBWAY® brand has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and we are committed to fostering and developing that spirit amongst young people. The students who entered the Design a Sub challenge demonstrated excellent creative and business skills and it was a privilege to be involved. All our entrants, and particularly our finalists, should be very proud of their achievements.”

Jim McGhee, Head of Business Studies at St Patrick’s Academy, said: “The students thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with the Design a Sub competition. It gave them a fantastic opportunity to put the business and marketing skills they are learning into practice and they all did a great job. Taking part in the Design a Sub challenge has been a fantastic experience for them. Winning the competition is a brilliant achievement and excellent reward for all their hard work; we are very proud of their efforts. The team and their peers are really looking forward to seeing their Sub design and marketing materials in SUBWAY® stores.”

Celine, Toma and Mark, students from the winning team, added: “We were the fourth of the finalists to deliver our presentation and we were very, very nervous. We didn’t know how well we had done and it was a shock when we were announced as the winners. After all of our hard work, it’s amazing that our Sub will go on sale next year and we will see our marketing materials in SUBWAY® stores in Northern Ireland. The process has given us all great experience and we had so much fun throughout the whole of the Design a Sub challenge.”

Tied into the National Curriculum, the Design a Sub Challenge asked teams to compete to create the best marketing campaign and business plan around their new Sub or flatbread, based on the theme of #LiveFresh.