TWO North-East firms have joined forces to ensure a massive fibreglass tank arrives safely in Malaysia.

Peterlee's Condor Products specialises in the design of custom-made fibreglass tanks and were faced with the problem of getting a £23m product to the Far East.

With just 48 hours to spare, managers turned to Gateshead specialists Stadium Packing to design and manufacture the casing that would be needed to transport a tank that was as long as the Angel of the North is tall.

Mark Clements, Condor's purchasing and materials manager, said yesterday: "The tanks are very fragile and need to be well protected on a journey that could take weeks, or even months.

"This is a very specialist job under any circumstances. However, on this occasion we had just a few days to address the complex issue of packing.

"We knew from previous experience that Stadium specialises in unusual bespoke packing as well as more conventional work, and that they would pull all the stops out to design and complete the packing on schedule."

Colin Hills, business development manager at Stadium Packing, said last night: "We have worked with them before and thought we had seen everything, but even we were surprised by the size of these tanks.

"Fortunately, with all hands on deck, we were able to come up with a design solution in time to meet the shipping deadline."