Hartlepool electronics firm Stadium Group is looking forward to a bright future after it revealed a 25 per cent rise in turnover.

The business, which employs about 100 workers at its headquarters in the North- East, said the decision last year to focus solely on electronics, after selling its Branded Plastics division for £2.5m, had paid off. The board expects to see further expansion this year driven by its current operations and new acquisitions.

Stadium Group, which makes electronic circuit boards and controls for applications such as stairlifts and water meters, said its strong trading performance continued in the second half of its year, and it had net cash balances of about £1.5m.

Its full-year results for the 12 months to the end of December will be published on March 9.

Finance director Colin Wilson said: “There are a lot of good things continuing to bubble under and we are getting close to bringing new customers over the line.

“Some of that business is likely to be coming to Hartlepool, which will be good news for our staff in the region.

“It is too early to say what that will mean in terms of new jobs, but we would expect to see an increase in demand at our UK manufacturing sites.”

Stadium’s customer base is predominantly in the UK, but the business has placed an emphasis on identifying new opportunities in Asia, specifically in high-growth markets such as transport infrastructure and technology for the medical and security industries.

Mr Wilson said that the move to concentrate efforts in electronics had placed the business on an upward trajectory.

He said: “When we were putting projections together this time last year, it was clear to us that the strength was in the electronics side of things.

“We believed that the investment and effort that we had put in was about to bear fruit and it’s pleasing to be sitting here in a positive frame of mind for the year ahead.”

The company suffered a tragedy last year when Ken Leung, managing director of its Asian arm, and his two daughters were among those killed in a hijacked tourist bus in the Philippines.