MR ROGER Etherington is waxing lyrical after a successful business trip to New York.

For the manufacturer of furniture polish for antiques secured some valuable contacts which he hopes will lead to a shining future in the US.

Mr Etherington runs Rydenor Products on the Dalton Industrial estate near Thirsk.

The company, which employs four full-time and one-part time staff, has in the past had several clients who travelled from America and Canada - and even Australia - to buy the highly-prized wax polish.

"They were antique dealers who came over to buy furniture," said Mr Etherington. "They would come here to buy 500 tins of our antique furniture wax to take back with them, but not so many come over these days."

So, when he heard about the week-long trip to New York run by Made in Yorkshire, the organisation set up by North Yorkshire County council to help promote the area's craftspeople, he jumped at the opportunity.

Rydenor was founded in Sowerby in 1965 by a chemist who used his specialist knowledge to come up with many weird and wonderful blends of polish and other products.

He died in the late 1970s and Mr Etherington's parents, Geoff and Anne, bought the company, running it from their home in Hutton Sessay.

"It was very much a one man band but, rather than just selling products they made, they be-gan stocking other things as well," said Mr Roger Etherington. "Dad started from the boot of his car and then bought a Bedford van and started travelling round the craftsmen in the area and other outlets."

When Mrs Etherington died in 1989, Roger gave up his job as a pig feed specialist with Bocm Silcock to join his father at Rydenor.

The company moved to the Dalton industrial estate in 1992 and has steadily expanded and developed its product range. This includes the Waxwing range of hard wax polishes which are still handmade to the recipe used by the company's founder. They are said to be a unique blend of raw waxes, including beeswax, with a turpentine base and special natural oils.

Containing clear and coloured waxes, they can be used on all types of wood and any type of finish. While many wax polishes can leave a sticky surface which smears easily, the Rydenor waxes leave a hard shine which is virtually impossible to fingermark.

The company has its wax on sale at Dalton and in a variety of hardware and antique shops locally and dotted all over the country.

Rydenor produces 20,000 tins of polish a year but Mr Etherington wants to increase this to 50,000 and eventually 100,000 tins.

He has recently redesigned the tins and marketing material and was this week putting the finishing touches to a website - www.rydenor.co.uk - on which customers can order from a single tin upwards.

He left 4,000 full colour leaflets and 20 tins of polish in New York and hopes to establish several agents to find outlets in America.

Anyone interested in the polish or any other products Rydenor sells, can contact the company on 01845 578080.

Mr Jeremy Wright, manager of Made in Yorkshire, said one of its aims was to help small businesses develop national and international sales opportunities.

Any firms interested in the organisation can contact Mr Wright on 01609 532554