CATALYSTS firm Synetix has unveiled the latest stage in its global rebranding programme.

The science company, part of the ICI group, welcomed Stockton council leader Bob Gibson to its Haverton Hill site in Billingham to open a new commercial centre.

Synetix employs 800 people worldwide, half of them on Teesside.

Its catalysts are used to improve products, such as helping to make chocolate that melts in your mouth. Catalysts are substances that aid a chemical change, without undergoing change themselves.

Councillor Gibson said: "It's great to see a local firm at the cutting edge of science, working in an area which will improve many products and help develop exciting new ones.

He said: "So much has been done over the past ten years to change the local industrial landscape. We have moved away from our past and into a new era of cleaner, greener industries and technologies.

"Companies like Synetix are changing the overall image of the local area giving it a new, modern look it quite rightly deserves."

Coun Gibson was joined by Synetix chief executive Bob Coxon and other local VIPs.