A COUNTY Durham firm is to take on more staff after a technological breakthrough which could aid the growth of pharmaceutical companies.

The Honeyman Group, which employs 32 people in Barnard Castle, has developed a pure water distribution system that can be added to or adapted, using flexible hoses.

All pharmacutical companies need a purified water system, but traditional ones, stretching around factories, are made of stainless steel with welded joints forming one consistent loop.

These can be expensive to install, are difficult to adapt and have to be completely shut down for maintenance or upgrades.

The new system uses hoses working independently to each outlet tap, meaning the system can be added to as required and does not have to be shut off while work is carried out.

Although it sounds straightforward, the system has to meet pharmaceutical industry standards so does not operate in the same way as traditional plumbing.

The company believes the Hydro- Gienic system is the first new development in the field for 30 years.

It could save smaller companies capital expenditure during the start-up phase, as they will not have to install a single large system, and bigger companies could save more than £100,000 when factory downtime is taken into account.

It has been installed for the first time at Dales Pharmaceuticals, in North Yorkshire.

Honeyman Group chairman Trevor Honeyman said: “I think it will create more jobs within the group.

“I knew from day one this had massive potential. We have spent eight years developing it and building prototypes. It has been a long process.”

To meet pharmaceutical standards, the system had to be able to maintain water purity and water velocity through the system.

Mr Honeyman said: “Hydro- Gienic is an example of the strong entrepreneurial spirit that exists in the North-East pharmaceutical sector.

“We have always had a pioneering attitude to technology at the Honeyman Group.

“Pharmaceutical companies don’t look at the cost of downtime when they update, they look at the hardware, but time is money and downtime is very significant.”

He believed the system could also be introduced into other sectors, adding: “It can be applied to any sector that has large concentrations of fluid that has to be delivered hygienically, maintaining its chemical and microbiological qualities to multiple users around a factory.”