CIRENCESTER College won second and third place in the area finals for a business competition taking place across schools in the country.

Of the six participating teams at the area finals of the Young Enterprise competition held at the Royal Agricultural University, three were from Cirencester College.

Seatbuddy, a business developing a travel pillow to be attached to seatbelts, one second overall in the competition. They were also placed first in ethics, third in presentation, and third in business report.

Shellutions, a company inventing Bin Feet to help with taking bags out of rubbish bins, won third overall. They also won first place in presentation, second in business report, second in ethics, and third in financial performance.

Retrovate, who are creating an educational card game, was placed third in ethics. They have also been shortlisted for a Cirencester Chamber of Commerce award.

In first place of the competition was Maji Bottle team, from Balcarras School, Cheltenham, who had impressed judges with good sales figures.

At the next stage, the regional finals, only one team will be representing the Gloucestershire area, and that will be Maji Bottle team.

The area finals included special guests from local businesses like St James' Place, Money.co.uk and Chute Design.

Hannah Clark, supporting teacher and innovation and enterprise manager, said: "The number of awards and placings we picked up collectively as a college today means that 2016 has proven to be the colleges best ever collective performance in this and the Trade Fair strand of the competition.

"And means Seatbuddy and Shellution are in the top performing Young Enterprise companies that the college has had.

"It was clear from the feedback that judges and competitors were blown away by the level of innovation and entrepreneurship coming from our students.

"Our students really did themselves proud today, delivering exceptionally high standards of presentation skills and being gracious in defeat considering how close it was in those top three places.

"I believe we will be seeing Bin Feet and Seatbuddy in high-street stores very shortly."

Bradly Adams, sales director of Seatbuddy, said: “expressing ourselves passionately about what we offer allowed us to portray a positive vibe towards both our brand and product portfolio today.

"It has really boosted my confidence presenting in front of so many people and I am learning new things about myself all the time”.

Joel Carr of Shellution said: "Originally I got involved with Young Enterprise to help boost my CV and university application, which it definitely has done.

"But during the process, I have learned and achieved so much more than I could have imagined.

"The experience of having to create your own idea, make the product, market and sell it all alongside competing in the competition has been invaluable.

"I felt gutted not to have won the finals having put so much into Shellution over the last eight months but we did ourselves proud by winning the presentation award, getting placed in every other award and coming third in the overall competition.”

Winners for the Young Enterprise competition will be announced in May.