SUCCESS in European dental and medical markets has seen a US manufacturer getting its teeth into the North-East.

Esschem Europe Ltd specialises in developing polymers for the manufacture of dentures, hearing aids and cosmetics, and it is setting up a production and distribution centre in Durham.

The £250,000 venture will create 15 jobs over the next 18 months, and is the company's first manufacturing facility outside the US.

The operation will be headed by Gary Shaw, a qualified dental and materials technician, who left his native North-East in 1991 to take up a post with Esschem in the USA.

Gary, originally from Newcastle, returned to the region in 1996 to set up Acrytek Ltd in Durham's Mountjoy Centre as a technical sales agent for Esschem materials.

He said: "The sales volume now being achieved throughout Europe warrants a local manufacturing and supply base.

"We believe there is considerable potential for growth, and have a strategy for further expansion in the years to come.

"Currently 85 per cent of our European business is outside the UK, and there could have been a case for locating the new operation on the continent.

"But the continued support we have received from local agencies made a compelling case for selecting Durham."

One of those bodies, the County Durham Development Company (CDDC), has maintained links with the firm for the past five years.

Business development executive at the CDDC, John Elliott, said: "We first made contact with Esschem in 1995 during an investment mission to the USA, and we have supported and worked closely with the company since then.

"The latest news reinforces the companies commitment to Durham and we are very optimistic about prospects for future development and jobs growth at the site at Belmont."

Along with the CDDC, the DTI, City of Durham, and Durham County Council provided financial support for Esschem Europe - with the local jobs boost marking the satisfactory outcome of long standing links developed by CDDC with the company. Production at Belmomt will start next year.