THE adage that says: 'It's not where you start that matters but where you finish', fits well with the story of County Durham's Altec Engineering.

The business which began four decades ago on the site of a former slaughterhouse in Coxhoe is now a multi-million pound group that applies its expertise to some mind boggling applications - such as helping astronomers in South America to pinpoint light coming from distant galaxies.

But Altec's contract to supply specialist components for telescopes - under its deal with the Durham Centre for Advanced Instrumentation - represent only a fraction of the myriad sectors it serves.

Engineering suffered as much as any industry during the recession. Altec was no exception and there were redundancies at the firm's Bowburn headquarters, explains David Steel, managing director, who points out that there was also a determination to see beyond the downturn and plan for recovery.

"Unlike other companies we invested in business development when times were tough, and tried to diversify as much as possible so we weren't too dependent on one sector. That has been key to us coming out of the recession in relatively good shape and in a position to grow," he says.

Altec designs and manufactures special purpose equipment and manufactures high precision CNC components. Its ability to adapt and deliver high quality products to industries such as automotive, defence, mining, medical science, energy, and oil and gas, has been one of the keys to its longevity. Having a team of highly skilled and experienced engineers, toolmakers and design staff - some of whom boast more than 20 years with the company - has also given it an edge in a fiercely competitive environment.

Its reputation for quality and reliability means it is part of the supply chain for the Challenger II Battle Tank and the Boxer armoured vehicle. In the offshore sector it supplies oil and gas companies throughout the UK, and it is a trusted supplier to the nuclear industry.

Altec is led by an experienced team and its major shareholder is Alastair Waite, who acquired a majority stake in the business from his father Ron, who founded the company in Coxhoe, before its move to nearby Bowburn in 1988.

"In the early days a lot of the jobs could be small scale stuff worth maybe £50, whereas now we are working on half a million pound contracts," adds Mr Steel, who joined the firm 26 years ago.

He explains that during the recession staff numbers at Bowburn dropped to about 30, but thanks to organic growth and acquisitions Altec now employs 73 people at its County Durham base and more than 140 across the group.

"We are very ambitious. By 2018 we expect to be a £25m group, which would really be something when you think only a few years ago we generated about £4m."

Altec is proud of its Durham roots, but that won't limit its ambitions, Mr Steel adds. "If we find the right acquisition opportunity that feels like a good fit for what we are trying to achieve then we will go for it," he says.

Over the past three years revenues have doubled through organic growth and the acquisition of West Yorkshire-based Sigma Technologies in November last year.

The business has been steadily scaling up in recent years following the investment into its Durham site last year, which saw it spend £1.5m in the facility and take up an extra 7,000sqft of space to add to its existing 9,000qft floorspace. The firm also acquired 10,000 sq.ft of factory space behind the Durham site to help it meet future investment plans in special purpose machine building, precision engineering and specialist coatings.

In addition to increasing the area available for production and machine building, this new facility provided the opportunity to house dedicated training facilities, highlighting the emphasis which Altec places in the recruitment and training of engineering apprentices.

The company has a total of 11 apprentices at various stages of training, with a further three, or possibly four, due to join the company this month (August). In addition two apprentices who have just completed their training are staying on at the firm, one as a toolmaker and the other as QA inspector.

"The type of people we need, such as toolmakers, are highly skilled and they are not easy to find. So we made the decision to ensure we supported apprenticeships and develop the type of staff we need," says Mr Steel.

Established in 1978, Altec Engineering last month received a funding boost from the Business Growth Fund (BGF), which it has used to expand its operations. That support helped Altec to buy neighbouring business Ronco Engineering, a precision engineering company based in Tanfield Lea, near Stanley, which provides CNC manufactured parts to customers such as truck makers Caterpillar and JCB.

Alastair Waite says: “Altec was successful in obtaining funding from FW Capital last year which enabled us to grow the business to the stage where BGF could support us further.

“BGF’s investment has already helped us to move forward with our growth plans through the acquisition of Ronco – a solid business that shares our ethos around engineering quality and building long-standing relationships with customers.

“We have spent time getting to know the team at BGF. Their minority investor approach is completely aligned with our desire to have a supportive partner who is prepared to stand back from the day-to-day running of the business.”

Richard Taylor, who led the BGF investment with colleague Barry Jackson, explained why the fund had been keen to support the Durham firm's growth ambitions.

"Altec has a great team delivering excellent results. Alastair has a track record in executing buy and build strategies and has a pipeline of opportunities that, with our investment, will help the business scale quickly. This is BGF’s sixth investment in the North-East, taking our total investment in the region to over £40m. This is testament to the growing confidence of businesses located here to pursue growth after a sustained period of underinvestment," he said.

Altec has also made a number of board appointments including David Bailey, former vice president of Parker Hannifin Europe, to the role of non-executive chairman following an introduction made by BGF. Simon McIntosh has joined as group financial director and Barry Jackson is now on the board on behalf of BGF.

"Securing the support of FW Capital helped us get to a stage where BGF became involved to help us to the next level. We've come a long way but we are really optimistic about the future too."