THE new boss of a North-East subsea company has outlined aims to double the size of the business within three years.

Martin Moon, who joined Subsea Innovation Limited in June, believes the business has excellent capacity to grow with both its current stable of clients and new clients across the world, providing products for the oil and gas and energy industry.

Subsea Innovation, which is a member of energy sector business development organisation NOF Energy, employs 35 people at its Darlington headquarters and manufacturing facility, with a turnover of about £7.5m.

The company is a world leader in the design and build of launch and recovery systems (LARS), tether management systems (TMS), module handling systems (MPHS), with more than 100 successful projects delivered worldwide. The company also designs and manufactures a wide range of Riser hang-off, Pipeline repair and Subsea sealing systems which have been installed on pipelines and operates as far afield as Malaysia and South America, with clients from Darlington to Australia.

Mr Moon said: "In the next three years, we aim to work and grow with our clients to double turnover and increase the workforce in line with that expansion. It is important for us to progress to meet clients' expanding needs and to continue to develop market-leading effective products in line with customers' growing and changing requirements."

The growth will see the company employing additional design, project and service engineers to meet the extra workloads.

Subsea Innovation is part of a regional sector made up of around 50 supply chain companies, currently generating a turnover of £1bn a year, expected to grow by 29 per cent in the next two years, and supporting more than 10,000 jobs.

Mr Moon continued: "The work will take our team and services into a wide range of geographical regions as the energy sector expands into new global markets, and we have the proven expertise to deliver to any part of the globe.

"The growth targets are perfectly achievable in a sector which is strong and thriving, especially from the exciting North-East hub."

Mr Moon was most recently a consultant to the industry, having previously held the positions of Operations Director and Interim Managing Director at CTC Marine (now DeepOcean) and directorships at Hertel UK and Aker Kvaerner Engineering Services.

Joanne Leng MBE, Director Business Development at NOF Energy, said: "The ambition shown by Subsea Innovation is testament to the strength of the sector in the current climate and we have confidence that, under Martin's leadership, the company will be an ongoing success and help to fly North-East's flag across the globe."