CityU Department of Marketing students participating in a consultancy services project with some of Hong Kong's top companies have been honoured for their valuable work at an awards presentation ceremony.

Final-year students, led by Mr Alex Tham, an instructor in the Department of Marketing, briefly joined the ranks this year of Delifrance (HK) Ltd, Amoy Foods Ltd, The Dairy Farm Group and Compucon Computers (Asia) Ltd, for which they provided consultancy services.

"I'm glad to see that the Department of Marketing is doing well in this regard," said Faculty of Business Associate Dean and Professor of Operations Research and Management Sciences, Dr K K Lai at the awards presentation ceremony, held on 10 January in the Wei Hing Theatre.

Eighty-five Department of Marketing students were split into 15 groups between September and November last year and sent off to work for one of the companies mentioned above. For the Dairy Farm Group, for example, students contributed to marketing strategies for the group's Wellcome, Mannings, and 7-Eleven retail stores. Wellcome asked students to focus on the growth and decline of various supermarket categories. The results of the students' work were both "informative and useful", said Mr Mark Garwood, Wellcome's Retail Development Director.

Mr Rob Naylor, General Manager of Delifrance in Hong Kong, speaking at the ceremony, said he appreciated the students' work and added that the consultancy project findings would help Delifrance position itself for future expansion.

"I really believe that these projects have helped us with some difficult problems this year," said Mr Naylor.