Business

Co Down husband and wife team win top prize at INVENT Awards

Winners of INVENT 2018, Julie and David Gray of Gray’s Clip are congratulated by headline sponsor, Gavin Kennedy of Bank of Ireland UK. Picture by Brian Morrison
Winners of INVENT 2018, Julie and David Gray of Gray’s Clip are congratulated by headline sponsor, Gavin Kennedy of Bank of Ireland UK. Picture by Brian Morrison Winners of INVENT 2018, Julie and David Gray of Gray’s Clip are congratulated by headline sponsor, Gavin Kennedy of Bank of Ireland UK. Picture by Brian Morrison

A HUSBAND and wife team behind an innovative electrical cable clip were the big winners at the INVENT Awards from Connect at Catalyst Inc.

The event, held in the ICC Belfast (Belfast Waterfront) and attended by almost 700 guests saw Gray's Clip take home the top prize of £13,000 and bag a bespoke business trip to the United States next year.

Developed by Bangor-based David and Julie Gray, Gray’s Clip has revolutionised the process of clipping electrical cables.

The product works with a battery powered stapler to secure cables to wooden joists and structures. This results in no need for hammering, with the user simply loading the strip of 20 clips into a stapler and pressing a button.

INVENT sponsor, Gavin Kennedy from Bank of Ireland UK said: “Julie and David demonstrated outstanding commitment, passion and belief towards realising their ambition in bringing their idea, Gray’s Clip to market. Witnessing such determination and vision from them and all of the participants highlight what an inspiration our local entrepreneurs are for Northern Ireland in business and the wider community.”

Also, at the event on Thursday evening, John Rainey, of Denroy Group, received the prestigious 2018 Innovation Founder award. He joins an esteemed list of previous recipients including James Lecky, Brian Conlon and Dr Peter FitzGerald.

The INVENT competition offers an opportunity for the innovators of Northern Ireland to come forward and be recognised as the next ‘big thing’ – and this year attracted a record breaking 131 entries across the six categories.

As well as being the overall winner, Gray's Clip was one of the six category winners, who received £3,000 each. The other category winners were: Crafted Equestrian (Agri Science); Machine Eye (Electronics); SonoTarg (Life & Health Science); Go-Fyt (Creative Media) and Importwise (Enterprise Software).