AMIDST the mayhem this week and fears of a much bigger than expected world economic slowdown, reflected in jittery stock markets and general doom-mongering, there was some good news here in Darlington.

One of the region's great industrial companies announced that it had turned a corner in its fortunes. Cleveland Bridge, the Darlington-based bridge builder and a name inextricably tied up with the area's engineering heritage, launched a share scheme for its expanding workforce.

Share option schemes are ten-a-penny, of course, but the context is which this scheme is launched is a little different. Just over a year ago, the company was on its knees, an unwanted division of the Anglo-Norwegian company Kvaerner. It was up for sale, orders were down, the workforce had been cut and there was not a long queue of corporate buyers, apart from the company's own management.

The management succeeded in purchasing the company, crucially without the need for venture capital. Today the story is entirely different. The workforce has doubled and production has quadrupled. Major orders have been won from across the world and the company has begun expanding its network of offices. The famous Dorman Long name has even been resurrected for the company's specialist products division.

All this has happened during a period when the trend in manufacturing in this country, and particularly in the North-East, has been to contract.

The company's managers, who so courageously funded the buyout with their own cash, will be the first to say that one full order book doesn't guarantee anything, but nevertheless it is news to savour in a terrible week. And the workforce should today welcome the chance to share more fully in their re-born company's success.