A NORTH-EAST firm, founded in its owners bedroom, has secured a landmark deal to supply life-saving fire protection to the Middle-East offshore energy industry.

Ecco Finishing Supplies, in Middlesbrough, has signed a £500,000 contract to send specialist spray machines to Oman-based Tech International, will be used in steel structures on oil and gas refineries and petrochemical plants to increase their heat resistance.

The company, which employs 15 people, says it has now extended its manufacturing base, near Middlesbrough's Newport Bridge, and is creating two jobs with the potential for future workforce expansion.

Keith Miller, Ecco managing director, who started the business in his Billingham home in 1995 with a £40 typewriter, revealed the contract, which will see the firm ship more than 12 spray machines to the Middle-East during the next six months, would pave the way for more overseas contracts.

He said: “This is the biggest contract in our history for these machines and is the tip of a giant iceberg in potential overseas contracts.

“We are already in advanced talks about another major export deal making this an unbelievably exciting time for us, and the two deals could increase turnover by 25 per cent in the next year.

“We have been trying to make this kind of breakthrough for a number of years and having previously distributed machines based on other company’s technology, two of our highly-skilled engineers have helped us find a niche in the market.”

Mr Miller said Tech International, which is part of the Al Sulaimi Group engineering business, would act as sole distributor of Ecco’s passive fire protection machines for the region’s oil and gas industries, and added work had already started on another order to build four custom-made systems.

The firm, which also supplies pneumatic paint sprayers, sent equipment used on the re-painting of Tower Bridge, ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games, works with Sunderland-based Nissan and sends surface finishing products to Russia, Canada, Kazakhstan and Germany.

Mr Miller said the firm, named North-East Chamber of Commerce exporter of the year, was proud of its roots, reflected in a Made in Middlesbrough stamp on the equipment, and was delighted it was helping the local economy.

He said: “We have placed orders worth six figures into the Teesside economy as a direct result of this deal, so it’s pumping money into the local economy, and we are providing business for four businesses within five miles of our base.

“All of the manufacturing work, all of the parts, every last nut apart from the aluminium, is made in Middlesbrough.”