A COMPANY has become the first to move from a virtual tenancy at a North-East technology park to taking physical offices.

Eshtech Ltd, which offers management consultancy to early stage technology firms, had previously been part of NETPark Net, the online version of the North East Technology Park.

Eshtech has now taken office and laboratory accommodation at NETPark, near Sedgefield, County Durham, which offer incubator facilities to new science, engineering and technology firms looking to turn their research and development into commercial ventures.

It is the first firm to do so since the park opened in 2004.

Netpark Net has nearly 300 member companies and organisations, mostly in the North-East region but some national and international.

The online facility was set up to extend the expertise and support available to fledgling firms based at the science park to other companies which had not reached the stage of requiring physical offices, but could play an important role in driving the region's technology industries.

Eshtech, founded in March 2010, provides management consultancy for hi-tech start-ups, helping them with business development, sales and marketing as they seek to commercialise scientific breakthroughs.

The firm's managing director Dr Gary Gibson said: "Often they are technology led companies where the staff have great technology skills but need assistance with the business side of things such as sales and marketing.

"It is when companies start to get these initial sales that outside investors start to look at them and put the money in to help them grow."

A separate part of the Eshtech business is the development of its own advanced x-ray imaging technology, used in sectors such as electronics, and the laboratory space it has taken will help drive on this side of the business.

Eshtech presently employs four people, but has plans to double that in the near future.

Dr Gibson added: "NETPark is a fantastic environment.

"It is great to be locating to a place where so many other innovative and enterprising companies are based."

NETPark is owned by Durham County Council and operated by its business support arm, the County Durham Development Company (CDDC).

Stewart Watkins, managing director of CDDC, said: "The NETPark Incubator is specifically designed to support innovative companies like Eshtech and it's fantastic to see the firm graduating from a virtual office to a full time location at NETPark - I'm sure they will be the first of many."

Durham County Council's cabinet member for regeneration and economic development Coun Neil Foster, said: "The graduation of Eshtech Ltd from virtual tenant to taking on full time office and laboratory accommodation is a really important moment for our fantastic facility."