SMALL understated offices disguise the ambition of leisure operator Vimac. The business, based in the Boldon Business Park on South Tyneside, has a turnover of £8m, and employs more than 260 staff - and this has been achieved in only two years.

So far, it has invested £11m in new businesses and plans to invest a further £5m in the next year.

It operates eight venues, including the DH1 and Caf Rock nightclubs in Durham City and the Crab Manor Hotel, in Asenby, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

Other venues under the Vimac umbrella are cabaret and nightclub venue Studio, in Glasgow, and the Milano nightclub and bar, in Rotherham.

The company is the creation of managing director Paul Mackings, 42, a former chief executive of the Newcastle Falcons Rugby Club.

He originally joined the Falcons for two weeks to help broker a deal for the survival of the club, after Sir John Hall announced he was withdrawing his backing, but stayed for two years.

He said: "I had previously been at West Hartlepool, as chief executive advisor, helping it make the transition to the premiership. I had gone there for six weeks, and ended up staying for six months.

"It was while I was at West Hartlepool that I got the call from Sir John Hall to go to the Falcons and save the club, after he decided to pull out.

"Since then, the Falcons have gone from strength to strength."

As well as his involvement in the sports business, Mr Mackings other interests have included a chain of nursing homes, under the Vimac name, a waste management company, called Tyneside Waste Management, and a property company.

Mr Mackings, said: "By 2001 I had sold the nursing homes business, the waste management company, and the property company.

"I admit that I did consider retirement for a while. I had made a lot of money from my previous businesses, but I was only in my late 30s, and needed something to occupy me.

"I went back to where I started, in the leisure industry, and in particular nightclubs.

"I had started working in nightclubs at the age of 18, when I joined Stan Henry's Bailey Organisation, in South Shields, which later became Springs. The change of direction for Vimac into leisure was a result of identifying a gap in the market. I identified an opportunity to position a new business in the growing industry."

Vimac's strategy has, until now, been one of growth by acquisition, focusing on established businesses with a unique selling point.

But Mr Mackings now admits that he could be building clubs during the coming year.

He said: "I've identified at least two potential sites, but to tell you where they are would be giving the game away.

"Needless to say, they will be in the smaller towns, where there is a need for such venues."

But the father-of-two can foresee at time when he will get bored with nightclubs. He said: "I get itchy feet after a while and need to look for fresh challenges.

"I only expect to be in charge at Vimac for five to eight years, but expect to leave behind a business that continues to be successful, once I have gone.

"Within the next five years, I would like to reach £25m turnover, and then consider floating the business, probably on the Alternative Investment Market." By doing so, Mr Mackings hopes his business will emulate the success of one of its bigger rivals, Ultimate Leisure, of Newcastle.

He said: "Ultimate is a massive operation, and the kind of organisation that we need to aspire to be."

But what does the world hold when Mr Mackings finally cuts his ties with the business he has built up from scratch?

"I am too young to retire just yet," he says,

"So I'll be looking for fresh challenges once I call it a day at Vimac, but what those challenges will be, I really do not know.

"I hope the success of Vimac Leisure over such a short period of time sets an example to other budding entrepreneurs in the North-East.

"You do not have to be a joiner to run a successful joinery company, or an engineer to run a successful engineering company, you just need to be a good business person."