THE North-East based subsiduary of a global construction consultancy has secured millions of pounds worth of new business and increased staff numbers from three to 25 in the past year.

Driver Project Services, a division of international firm Driver, opened offices in Yarm, Teesside, in June 2010, during which time turnover has risen to £5m.

The firm is presently engaged in 12 projects within the oil and gas, power generation, chemical processing, steelmaking and civil engineering sectors.

Managing director Martin Woodall said: "So far this year, the Yarm office has secured 30 commissions and currently has 12 active projects, which, while approximately in line with the ambitious targets we set ourselves more than a year ago, far exceeds what we realistically could have expected to achieve given the global recession and its well-documented impact on the engineering and construction services economy.

"What the team here on Teesside has achieved in 12 months is a fantastic result, no doubt about it."

Although the subsiduary has offices across the UK it is headquartered in Teesside.

Mr Woodall said: "We chose to base project services on Teesside so we would have on our doorstep not only a host of world-class engineering and process businesses, but also a rich resource of people with the highest levels of skill and experience in the engineering construction field."