AS ‘A’ level results are released across the country today, local entrepreneurs are hoping to cash in on the many thousands of new students starting university this September.

Three young men from Chigwell, South Woodford and Woodford Green have come up with a bag of 80 essential items they believe no first-time student can do without as they start their new lives away from home.

Lee Hoppen, 24, of Courtland Drive, Chigwell, Ed Collins, 24, of Laurel Way, South Woodford, and Kaan Beck, 24, originally of Grove Wood Place, Woodford Green, came up with the Unisak, which holds everything between headphones, a frying pan, a scientific calculator and a duvet.

The trio, who operate as Packed Out Ltd, decided to begin selling it online after a successful trial last year and it is now seen as a useful kit for foreign students who cannot bring everything they need from overseas.

Mr Beck, who now lives in Orlando, Florida, in the USA, said: "Ed and I had to check around all the shops with our mothers getting everything for our dormitories before university. Eddy thought there must be an easier way to do this. We saw one of our friends struggling and that’s where the concept came from."

They have now had orders from as far afield as India and China for the Unisak and its success has sparked an expansion into the public sector.

The company now sells such unusual packages as a pack of essential items for asylum seekers and a bag stuffed with useful products for prisoners being released from jail.

The Unisak can be bought for £149.99 on www.unisak.com.

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