EAST Lancashire's would-be future business tycoons are set to head off to Belgium next month to show their European opposition that their sales patter is the best - in any language.

Members of the Young Enterprise company of Ribblesdale High School, Clitheroe, will travel to Brussels to take part in a continent-wide trade fair.

They will show off the products their company, Lodestar, has been making. The company, which makes a variety of storage racks, beat off competition from across the UK to take part in the fair - which also includes a sales presentation n France. Ribblesdale's YE co-ordinator, Neil Ashworth, said: "Last year's company from our school got to go too, and we are the only representatives from the UK there.

"We came third last year, and, hopefully, we will do just as well this year. It's a tough competition, with a lot of the other competitors coming from French-speaking countries."

Young Enterprise schemes operate in schools across East Lancashire as part of a wider, European project.

Each scheme involves local business figures helping youngsters setting up their own company which they run for a year.