THE latest technology has helped a plastics firm achieve record growth for the past five years.

Power Plastics, of Thirsk, North Yorkshire, was founded in 1973 and has doubled its turnover since 1998 and has seen a ten per cent rise year on year in the first six months of this year.

The company makes thousands of products, including plastic scaffolding sheeting, swimming pool covers, agricultural fumigation chambers, gymnasium crash mats and marquee components.

The first impact of computer technology came in the company's manufacturing capability. In place of the drawing board and the hand-cutter, they introduced computer-aided design (CAD) and installed one of Europe's largest computerised cutting tables.

Andy Beetles, managing director, said: "Thanks to these highly accurate and versatile tools, we can tackle virtually any job with absolute confidence.

"Lead-times from briefing through design to manufacture have been cut dramatically, and the quality and performance of the finished product are now virtually guaranteed. They gave us the capacity to up production - and we found the customers to match."

Finding customers was the next area to feel the impact of modern technology.

Thanks to e-mail and the Internet - and increasingly broadband connections - the company found it could service clients worldwide who would previously have slipped their grasp.

"We were early adopters of a website within our field, so we could be accessed from anywhere. But certain areas of the globe were out of reach for us," said Mr Beetles.

"The logistics of communication using old-fashioned methods - by which I mean phone calls and faxes - ruled them out.

"But now we can respond instantly. We can send still or moving pictures, view design changes in two countries simultaneously, and communicate by voice or written word with ease. Technology has revolutionised our export sales."

The company has now undertaken contracts in Asia, Australia, the Far East and Africa. It has just completed the installation and commissioning of the world's largest pest control fumigation bubbles for a major tobacco grower in Malaysia, an order worth approximately £500,000.