LAND-RECLAIMING company Sirius has more than doubled its target turnover in its first year of trading and is set to recruit more staff.

The Sirius Group, with offices in Durham, Langley Moor and Leeds, has pushed turnover more than double its target to £7m and already has £4m in secured contracts for this year. It is looking to increase its staff of 40 by creating another ten posts.

Director Paul Taylor said the service aimed to give construction clients the confidence to build on brownfield sites which had previously been considered too problematic for development.

Sirius' clients include national housebuilders, commercial property developers and local authorities.

Fellow director Matt Powell said: "We were confident that by combining the two key elements of geo-environmental consulting and ground engineering contracting in-house we would have an extremely successful business on our hands, as it is something many clients want but few companies can deliver."