Gareth Harca is a business star of the future. No, make that business star. Period.

Only just turned 21 years of age and still studying for his Enterprise degree at the University of Northampton, Gareth could be on the verge of something special.

Gareth has turned a course project into the makings of a potentially major business. From his family farm near Kettering, Gareth has seen the future plans for massive housing development in areas such as nearby Corby and Milton Keynes. He’s considered just how many people will be moving into new housing estates, pining for a little more greenery about the place.

Realising their impatience at having to wait for their greenery to grow, he’s identified an innovative solution – InstaHedge: get a hole dug and have your ready-made, mature hedge installed, easy as you like.

He’s done his homework, he knows his market and he’s got several nurseries supplying him with the product he needs. And with the business support of EMIN, emda and the incubation facilities at the University of Northampton, he’s getting on with it.

In fact, not only is he combining the business with his studies, he’s launched a new venture, called RentaHedge, supplying temporary hedging solutions to events that ranged last year from a game fair at Belvoir Castle to the Burghley Horse Trials, as well as weddings and garden parties.

Gareth’s flair for entrepreneurship has already been recognised by The Event and Service Industry Awards (he’s claimed two runners-up prizes) and by his nomination for the Shell LiveWiRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.