A NEW company to help businesses capitalise on the selling power of internet auction site eBay has revealed ambitious plans to increase turnover to £14m and have a 100-strong workforce within its first two years of trading.

County Durham-based Bay agent.co.uk has been set up to sell surplus and redundant equipment from firms across the region through the world's leading online market place, which attracts a global audience of more than 200 million people.

But only weeks after its launch, Bayagent - the idea of e-commerce entrepreneur George Kinghorn, co-founder of internet website student mobiles.com - has its sights set on pushing turnover beyond £14m by 2009, and raising staff levels from the current three to 100.

Mr Kinghorn, Bayagent's managing director, said: "The potential of this company is incredible.

"Bayagent offers businesses another sales channel which many will not previously have thought about."

The company, based at Belmont Business Park, near Durham, values potential sales items using trading figures for similar goods sold on eBay. If the customer is happy with the valuation, a legal contract is signed between the two parties.

Bayagent then collects the items, which are then insured and stored at secure warehousing in Durham, and has signed a deal with a courier company to oversee distribution.

The business - which Mr Kinghorn has created with Colum Smith, the former business development director at legal company Eversheds - will work with Newcastle law firm Ward Hadaway to draw up contract agreements with customers.

Bayagent has also secured £60,000 investment from venture capitalist NStar to enable it to look at expanding further, by developing an online trading platform capable of recreating its services across other global sites such as Amazon and Yahoo.

Mr Kinghorn said: "The power of eBay is immense but you need to understand how to maximise the money you make which is where we come in.

"I've learned over a number of years of trading on eBay when the most opportune times are to list goods. You need to be certain your potential customer base is online when an auction is due to finish."

Business partner Mr Smith, Bayagent's commercial director, said it was a concept businesses of all kinds could tap in to.

"This is a previously untapped outlet for businesses that want to get value from stock and redundant equipment, as well as to clear valuable storage space of items they don't anticipate selling," he said.

"The pulling power of eBay opens up a far wider market place than most firms are capable of reaching."

Any companies interested in trading their surplus stock on eBay via Bayagent can visit www.bayagent.co.uk