AN employer in the region has been celebrating its centenary.

PVC manufacturer Hydro Polymers, one of the biggest employers in County Durham, has held a series of events to commemorate its parent company's 100-year history.

This month, it held a party for its 400 Newton Aycliffe employees.

Site director Bill Wood said: "Most companies don't make it to anything like their 100th birthday. It is more than a lifetime for most of us, and it really is quite an achievement.

"A centennial year is a great time to reflect and celebrate the history, but it is also a good time to think about the future and the next 100 years."

PVC has been manufactured in Newton Aycliffe for more than 50 years, when Bakelite built a PVC resin plant on the site of the former Royal Ordnance munitions factory in 1953.

Hydro Polymers bought the site in 1982, from then-owner British Industrial Plastics, and the company has been operating successfully ever since. The company is among Newton Aycliffe's largest employers.

Hydro Polymers is part of the Norwegian-owned Hydro Group, which employs 35,000 people in 40 countries.

The company has held a series of celebrations for the anniversary.

They included an event in Cologne, Germany, where more than 16,000 people attended a concert by Norwegian pop group A-Ha.