A dictation and typing company, servicing the needs of clients around the UK from offices in County Durham, is celebrating its tenth anniversary.

Telergos was established by Ken Kyle, in Barnard Castle, in 1993, as a subsidiary of a French parent company, with the help and support of County Durham Development Company.

From offices on the Harmire Business Park, the company offers a long distance typing and dictation service to clients in London, Manchester and across the UK.

Mr Kyle, who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in physics and electronics, said: "The name Telergos is Greek. Tele means distance and ergos means work, so roughly translated Telergos means to work from a distance.

"We transpose dictation for clients in London and elsewhere around the UK, from offices in Barnard Castle. We are based in the North-East, yet we don't have any clients here."

He said: "It's originally a French idea that has been doing very well since we introduced it to the UK ten years ago.

"We even do some work for English clients of our French parent company in France."

Telergos employs 12 staff, and has an annual turnover of £250,000. Its clients include management consultancies, insurance companies, solicitors and chartered surveyors.

Mr Kyle is hoping to expand his business into the growing conference market.

He said: "We believe there is a market for us in the conference sector, providing a typing service for reports and important speeches, particularly in the French market, transposing conferences for British clients.

"Such expansion could see a growth in the number of people we employ. While we are never going to employ hundreds, we should hopefully be able to double the number we currently employ, over the next two to three years."

To reward his staff for all their hard work during the past ten years, Mr Kyle treated them all to a weekend break in Paris.