HEAVY flooding in Europe failed to stop a County Durham firm taking a major step forward in its expansion plans.

Formula Plastics was awaiting an advanced moulding machine to form the centrepiece of its operations.

The company has just doubled its existing space with a move into a larger unit on the Aycliffe Industrial Park, Newton Aycliffe, and needed the machine, capable of injecting two plastics at once, to move into new areas of operation and cope with an increase in existing orders.

With on-going support from North-East venture capital firm NEL (Northern Enterprise), who invested in the company when it was a start-up in 1996, the company survived a difficult time a few years ago.

It is now going from strength to strength with a bulging order book and a growing workforce.

John Suggate, managing director, said: "This is an important expansion project for us and the machine was at the centre of our plans to develop into new areas and substantially enlarge our customer base.

"The majority of injection moulding in the UK is still single shot and we know there is demand in the North-East and other regions for this twin shot technology."

"I had already been out to the manufacturer in Austria to check the machine and we were just waiting for it to be shipped when the factory was hit by severe flooding.

"Delivery was delayed while the machine was re-built but, thankfully, we were able to borrow a similar, although smaller, machine from the makers to keep us going.

"We are very relieved that our own machine has finally arrived."