A youngentrepreneur from Abbots Langley and her two university friends have launched a pet treats company.

Lauren Ash, 22, along with Chloe Hackney, 24, of Hertford, and Jacquelyn Bond-Vaughan, 23, of Borehamwood, have created a business which allows dog owners to bake their own pet treats from home.

The trio won Hertfordshire University's annual Flare start-up business competition in 2013 with the idea for their company, PawBakes, which they came up with while studying at Hertfordshire Business School.

Miss Ash said: “After many long days and sleepless nights, we are delighted to officially launch PawBakes.

“The team all have a shared love of baking and pets and we hope that our pet treat kits will be an activity enjoyed by all the family.

“We will be attending our first trade show, All About Dogs in Suffolk, in March and can’t wait to speak to our customers directly about our brand.”

The PawBakes team has a great start, winning ‘most innovative ideaat the 2013 Flare Awards in Hertfordshire.

The prize money allowed them to test their products and develop their brand, which saw them rename the business from Petilicious to Pawbakes.

They currently have two products on offer – a peanut butter flavour iced cupcake baking kit and a peanut butter and honey biscuit baking kit.

Miss Ash added: “We have had great feedback so far, we are very friendly with the ‘famous Instagram dogs’ – they are all receiving a free kit this week and they are going to try and review our products.

“We have also received positive interest from some buyers – hopefully in the next few months they will begin to list our products.”