A MANUFACTURING company is to build its new headquarters in a small market town as turnover is expected to break the £5m mark.

Analox Sensor Technology, in Stokesley, North Yorkshire, has purchased a plot of land on the town's industrial park and expects construction to be completed by the end of the year.

The move to bigger offices forms part of Analox's expansion plans to increase turnover and its 46-strong workforce.

The firm, which manufactures breathing air measurement instruments and operates globally in a variety of niche markets, saw turnover grow from £3.6m in 2004 to £4.1m last year.

Marketing manager Michelle Morley said projected turnover for this year was £5.5m. She said: "We are moving to accommodate our expansion plans, which will see us take on more sales people and increase the manufacturing side of things.

"We have set targets for the next couple of years to grow the company. We are investing a lot in research and development because we need to make sure we are responding to what the market needs.

"There is a lot of potential to grow and, because of the name we have built up over the past 25 years, we have companies contacting us because they want us to provide one-off special products."

Analox started trading from a small office in Guisborough, near Middlebrough, in 1981, but later moved to Stokesley. In 2003 it opened a second office in the US.

The company provides breathing air analysis equipment for military and commercial diving, as well as gas analysis equipment for the industrial safety market.

Analox won a contract worth $1m (£531,300) to supply the US Navy with submarine escape analysers last year.

It already supplies them to the British, Canadian, Norwegian and Italian forces.