A NORTH East company that provides testing services to firms in the offshore, defence and nuclear industry plans to grow its turnover from £1m to £5m after investing in new kit.

Argos Inspection Company said it was set to move into the new unit at its base in Washington following a £500,000 investment, which will allow it to increase the size of its client base and work on larger products.

The new facility is the largest hi-tech radiation exposure facility in the country and will see it speed up the rate at which the firm carries out its tests from 20 hours to four hours.

The firm, which was set up more than 30 years ago, uses electrically generated X-rays and gamma rays to check if products, such as pipework, are damaged.

The facility, which is the firm’s fourth exposure bay, will allow it to increase the size of the products on which it carries out tests, rather than send much of its work to testing facilities in the Midlands.

The company believes the investment will see it double its £1m turnover by next year, before growing this to £5m over the next four years.

It is also looking to add to its team of 12 technicians at the site and said that it was hoping to bring on two apprentices over the next few months.

Managing director Peter Bauckham said: “We expect to attract a lot of new work through the new facility, particularly as it allows us to carry out tests on much larger products. We now hope to double our sales by next year, then work towards the £5m. We provide a very specialist service that is becoming more and more in demand as engineers use lighter and more specialist materials.”