A YOUNG Melksham entrepreneur has managed to wow judges at the National Youth Market convention by coming in second place for his business which recycles broken technology into gifts.

Michael Chipper, 22 from Bowerhill created his business Sloth Junk just 12 months ago and last month, he was selected from thousands of applicants to attend the National Market Traders Federation’s two day event.

After being judged on products, presentation and customer service skills Mr Chipper was awarded second place out of 100 traders and as a result bagged a free membership to the NMTF.

Mr Chipper, who turns broken electronics such as computers or games consoles, into new products including clocks, cuff links and jewellery, said he was surprised at hearing the news.

“I didn’t realise the event had awards and they had judges in plain clothes walking around seeing what your products are like, how your customer service skills are and so forth. I was so surprised that at the end of the event I had my name called in second place,” he added.

“My parents were really pleased because they were a bit sceptical at first about the whole thing. They like to play it safe but they were chuffed with the award.”

Mr Chipper added he initially started the business after graduating from Cardiff University in business management and hoped to offer people something different.

He said: “I watched an episode of the show with Kevin McCloud and they recycled an entire plan and I just thought it was brilliant and that’s what inspired the business.

“The products have been growing in popularity and we are even selling some in shops and so that is really exciting because it means we are getting the name out across the country.”

Sloth Junk products are available online.