AN envelope maker trusted by the Government to help deliver bills is aiming to create North-East jobs in an expansion.

Encore Envelopes told The Northern Echo it is looking to recruit about 20 staff to support a growing packaging venture.

The company launched Encore Packaging Solutions in early 2013 to make corrugated and solid board boxes and board envelopes.

Bosses are now looking for a new site to house that division to supplement its envelope arm, which produces about three and a half billion products every year.

Russell Croisdale, Encore’s managing director, said market demand meant the firm needed to expand its packaging strength, unveiling a target to mirror its 24-hour envelope making operation.

He said: “We employ 12 people in the packaging side and have a turnover of £1.6m, but we are looking to relocate shortly because the division has done really well.

“The team will increase by a reasonable number as we grow and build, and we will aim to have between 20 and 25 people in over the next 12 to 16 months.

“Doing that will give us the opportunity to push on, but we’ll not do anything that will jeopardise the company.

“We want to stay in the North-East; we don’t want to go anywhere else.

“We have a good reputation for our quality and services and know there are a lot of companies around us that require the things we can deliver.”

Encore’s envelope division employs nearly 250 staff and is responsible for more than a quarter of all UK packaging delivered by Royal Mail.

Mr Croisdale said its products are used by supermarkets including Tesco and Morrison’s, as well as Virgin, BT and Sky, with the Government relying on them for correspondence, including tax bills.

It also exports products to the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany through the Port of Tyne.

However, Mr Croisdale said the company had also had to be forward thinking as it tackles a somewhat falling demand for envelopes in the face of clamour for different means to ship goods, due to the rise in customers relying on online services.

To help meet that, Encore bought the UK division of Spanish competitor Tompla Envelopes early last year, moving all production from Europe to the North-East in a move bosses said supported its existing jobs in the region.

Mr Croisdale added: “The overall market in envelopes has been slightly declining, but it is holding up nicely.

“That is why we had been proactive and was one of the reasons we made the acquisition.

“Doing that secured the jobs we have here, but the packaging side is helping too.

“Our products have the quality and the knowledge to be able to supply the boxes companies’ gadgets go into.

“People are coming to because they know what we are about and what we can do.

“These are exciting times for us.”