THE electronic road sign company with the responsibility of directing traffic flow around the 2004 Olympics in Athens is moving to new premises.

VMS Limited, which makes and installs digital road and rail signs, is moving to a 35,000sq ft building in Monkton Business Park.

The company is also planning to increase its workforce from 53 to 70 during the course of the year.

VMS Limited successfully concluded a £10m management buy-out last July in which directors, backed by venture capital group 3i, acquired the company from Rolls-Royce.

Bill Hamilton, VMS finance director, said: "Following the management buyout, we needed to relocate from our Team Valley site to elsewhere in the area to enable us to carry out expansion plans.

"We considered several sites in the region, but the most suitable by far was the Monkton site."

VMS Limited is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on the move, and has been helped by a contribution from the South Tyneside Major Business Grant Fund. The move is due to be completed later this month.

Last year, VMS won a £700,000 contract to supply motorway information systems to aid traffic flow around the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

VMS has also recently won two £3m orders to provide signs for the active traffic management trial on the M42 in Birmingham and for use during the upgrade of the A1 in North Yorkshire.