A CLOCK hangs on the wall, its hands seemingly ticking hours behind the correct time.

However, a closer inspection reveals it is perfectly reliable.

The clock is, in fact, set to Australian time, and Andy Kay is quick to imply its significance to his company’s expansion Down Under.

The timekeeping alludes to a colleague’s emigration and the close contact both he and the firm have retained.

But while this tale of growth may be jovial, Mr Kay’s assertion of his firm’s growth is very real.

AK Lighting and Signs, in West Auckland, County Durham, is now in its tenth year, and expects to lift its 130-strong workforce to 150 soon.

Founded by Mr Kay, a time served electrician, it has a somewhat quiet and unassuming base that belies its achievements.

The company’s head offices are tucked away on Aptec Enterprise Park.

A grey staircase leads to a landing and dark coloured doors, which once opened, reveal a notice board laden with staff headshots.

Each one is pinned up to mark their presence at AK’s various depots.

You feel it’s a place where everyone knows everyone else.

Indeed, that notion is borne out when you see Mr Kay’s wife, Rachel, working as the company’s personnel director, and his old Bishop Barrington School friend, Paul Anderson, who is its accountant.

The firm, which was originally based in Ferryhill, County Durham, has regional bases in Knowsley, in Merseyside, and Horsham, in West Sussex, and has added to those with a new site in Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

It uses further depots in Sheffield, Cambridge and Nottingham through its clients.

Certainly signs of a growing company.

But delve deeper into its order book and AK’s strength in the industry is properly reiterated.

The firm specialises in street lighting, installing columns and digging trenches for their associated cables.

It has agreements with energy company SSE, Balfour Beatty, Amey, and lighting maker CU Phosco.

The company’s expertise helped it win £500,000 work to install floodlighting at Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, and it also replaced floodlight towers at Spennymoor Town’s Brewery Field ground.

At the Port of Dover, it worked with CU Phosco on a new lighting scheme and the pair worked together again on foundations and high mast lighting for the either side of the Tyne Tunnel.

Its reputation with Balfour secured a deal to improve lighting at Sunderland’s Queen Alexandra Bridge, and it has a framework to help Durham County Council to support its in-house lighting team.

On the M25, drivers are alerted to traffic cameras on signs installed by AK, with upgrades to the A19 at Wolviston relying on its traffic signs and street lighting capabilities.

The firm also has a tender out for Balfour’s work on the A1 Coal House to Metro Centre road widening scheme.

Significant success for Mr Kay then, who started his venture using financial support gleaned from the remortgaging of his house.

As he reclines in a sky blue chair, the former Balmer Lindley and Robson Walker worker is delighted with AK’s growth.

He said: “You sometimes have to sit back and pinch yourself about how we got here.

“In the first year we did about £600,000 turnover but we’re now looking towards the £11m mark.

“We started with two men, Andy Parkinson and David Bainbridge, and have gone from there.

“I’d worked at F Warren, in Newton Aycliffe, and at ASL, in Gateshead, and a couple of other places too in managerial roles, but got to the point where I thought I could do this on my own.

“I remortgaged my house to put money in the business and my intention was to operate here with eight men with me managing it all.

“I always thought one could look after eight effectively, but of course we have grown from that.

“However, the same philosophy has remained and we have a supervisor for every eight men in the team.”

Mr Kay chuckles when I suggest his company has slipped under the radar, operating effectively without ever, pun wholly intended, looking to put its name up in lights.

Instead, he looks back on the highlights and the contracts, particularly the more local achievements, which have stood out.

He said: “The big companies, like your Ameys and Balfour Beattys, are there to take the glory on the projects, but we are quite happy to do the support work and be the unsung hero in the background.

“It’s not often that we raise our heads above the parapets.

“But we have some great clients and have done very well out of repeat business.

“I remember the work at Durham Cathedral and Castle and how it was proper old school.

“There were no sit-down and write-down meetings, we knew what we had to do and did it.

“That was a flagship project for us.

“Our framework with Durham County Council and its in-house lighting team means we will help them for up to the next four years.

“They have a very busy period ahead of them with work on 40,000 residential lights.

“The Spennymoor work was good too, because the upgrade helped them with their promotion.

“Our depot in Lutterworth will also allow us to cover the South more effectively.

“We have always done a bit of work in the South but with a Northern presence.”

Mr Kay said the business was benefiting from a growing economy, with work becoming more widely available.

However, it hasn’t always been the case.

The company was forced to pare back its workforce when the downturn took full hold.

It was a difficult decision and a hard one to make, but Mr Kay said the firm had overcome its obstacles to re-position itself for future growth.

He added: “We’ve never known the North-East to be as busy as it is now.

“For us, we are definitely out of the recession, and the next four years will be buoyant for us.

“But we have had our problems too.

“Back in 2009, when the recession bit, we had a workforce of 58 but had to cut it down to 21.

“There was one point where we could have closed the doors because things were really tight.

“But we had reserves from the first five years and used those in the sixth year to get us motoring again.

“We are now reaping the rewards and the good times are back again.”