A TRAILER hire and sales company that went into administration earlier this month hopes its growing export business will lead to a profitable future.

Darlington Trailer Hire Limited, based at Hackworth Industrial Estate, in Shildon, called in local insolvency practice ICS (North East) Limited, of Darlington, after hitting problems last year and falling behind on its tax payments with debts of about £30,000.

Eamonn Wall, of ICS, said: "HM Revenue and Customs issued a winding-up petition against the firm in an attempt to force its closure, in lieu of unpaid taxes.

"We went to look at the business and basically it is a sound business that is trading profitably - it had a turnover of about £750,000 last year.

"However, it had suffered a downturn in trade in the last two years along with the rest of the haulage sector.

"We effectively took control on October 14. The administration order has given the company the temporary protection it needs, while its makes arrangement to pay off its own historical creditors almost in full - about 98p in the pound - over the next few years.

"We are looking to hand control back to the company in about four weeks."

Darlington Trailer Hire's director, Nick Scott, said the company was losing money by hiring trailers out to companies that were then unable to pay for them.

"It is a common trend in the haulage industry in Britain. The situation has cost us a lot of money. We have taken three of our customers to court because we are trying to get the money back from them," he said.

He said the business is focusing more on exporting trailers.

"We are doing a lot of exporting to North Africa, particularly Sudan. It is regular work and a good outlet for us. The sales side has always been fairly decent," said Mr Scott.

The company, which was set up in 2001, has a workforce of 13.

Mr Scott said: "We have a good set of lads. When the difficulties first came about, we didn't say anything and paid them out of our own pockets.

"Now everything is OK, we told them the situation and they appreciate that.

"At the end of the day, the business is nothing without them."