CHIEF executive Tony Isaac sees a bright future ahead for BOC's Teesside operations.

He believes the site at Teesport is of vital importance for the future growth of its parent company.

The Teesside network is now one of the largest industrial gases complexes in Europe, supplying gas for the steel, chemicals, petrochemicals and semiconductor industries as well as a range of medical and industrial customers.

Employing 80 staff, the business, part of the Process Gas Solutions (PGS) division, supplies almost 40 per cent of the needs of BOC's customers.

Those customers include many of the major players on Teesside and in the North-East, including Huntsman, Dow, Philips, Corus, DuPont and Atmel.

Yet one of the biggest growth areas of the business is in the hospitality sector, where its gases are instrumental in keeping the alcohol flowing in many of the region's pubs and clubs.

Mr Isaac said: "Scottish Courage is now one of our biggest customers in terms of its pubs and hotels business, while in Ireland, Guinness is a big customer of ours.

"In the US we help fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's to keep their fizzy drinks machines going."

The business is also picking up more customers in industries associated with the hospitality trade.

Mr Isaac said: "Pilkington is a key customer for us in terms of glass manufacture - making bottles for the drinks industry. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are also customers of ours.

"That may be a big growth area for us, but we won't neglect our customers like Huntsman and the chemical industry."

In fact, BOC was instrumental in the opening of a £30m hydrogen plant at Huntsman's North Tees site in March. That plant supplies high purity hydrogen by pipeline to Huntsman's polyurethanes raw materials manufacturing operations at Wilton and its aromatics production complex on the North Tees site.

Mr Isaac said: "Teesside is now our largest and most important single complex in the UK, supplying nearly 40 per cent of our PGS UK business and, as such, is of vital importance to the future growth of the business.

"As we build up our customer base, there will be further investment in the site."

About £150,000 is being invested in the site, which includes the refurbishment of offices for a larger sales team and improved conferencing facilities.

That takes BOC's total investment in the North-East since 1998 to almost £90m, including more than £45m in the past year alone.

Mr Isaac said: "The growth of our business on Teesside means we need to expand our facilities here. That, in turn, is leading to the addition of some new staff to the operation."

The Teesport operations of BOC boast production capacity for a range of gases, including oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen. It is one of about 50 BOC sites in the UK involved in the production and maintenance of its gas operations.

Before his appointment as an executive director of BOC in October 1994, Mr Isaac was finance director at paper firm Arjo Wiggins Appleton, which he joined shortly before its demerger from BAT Industries in 1990. Before then, he was finance director at GEC Plessey Telecommunications.

* Mr Isaac visited Teesside earlier this month. It was his first visit to the site since it acquired the industrial gases assets of Enron Teeside Operations (ETOL) in June, a deal which added more than 30 extra miles of pipeline and compressing equipment to BOC's existing business in the area.

"The diversity of customers on Teesside is a big plus for this business and one that will enable us to grow in the future," he said.