FLASH ideas from talented students at Maidstone's Invicta Girls Grammar School have won them a top business prize. The school's venture Flash was named best company at the end of the eighth annual Maidstone and Mid Kent Young Enterprise awards evening in County Hall, Maidstone.

Flash made its profits from ingenious clippies - a spiral of wire stuck into a decorative plastic cube designed to hold menus, notices or photographs. Andy Olymbiou, 16, from Boughton Monchelsea, is managing director of Flash. He said they had copied the idea from IKEA, but added their own distinctive fluff and sequins.

The £3.50 products had sold well at Maidstone Trade Fair and proved big sellers in the run-up to Christmas. "It's been a lot of hard work but a lot of fun," said finance director Hannah Ayling, 17, from Larkfield. She said the company's surplus would be given to a leukaemia charity.

Other members of the winning company were Laura Jessop, 16, from Wateringbury; Lisa Pollock, 17, from Grove Green; Vicky Ansty, 16, from Vigo, Laura Wigzell, 16, from Staplehurst, Jemma Baines, 17, from Allington; Becky Cressy, 17, from Bearsted, and Sam Driver, 16, from Kings Hill.

It was a great night for Invicta and the school's Young Enterprise link teacher Alison Carlow. Flash also won the Whitehead Monckton Award for best marketing and sales strategy, and Exit, the school's other Young Enterprise company, won the Best Use of Technology prize sponsored by Prime Building Consultants.

Other awards went to K@os, Maidstone Girls Grammar School (ASB Law Award for Best Presentation); Rat Pack, Cornwallis School (Howath Clark Whitehill Award for the Most Original Product); and Clockwork, Malling School (Chequers Trade Stand Award).Flash will compete in the county final being held at The Salomon Centre, Tunbridge Wells, on May 9.