One of County Durham's largest employers has been celebrating its centenary.

PVC manufacturer Hydro Polymers has held a series of celebratory events during 2005 to commemorate its parent company's 100-year history.

And this month it held a party for all its 400 Newton Aycliffe employees.

Site director, Bill Wood, said: "Most companies don't make it to anything like their 100th birthday. It is more than a lifetime for most of us, and it really is quite an achievement.

"A centennial year is a great time to reflect and celebrate the history, but it is also a good time to think about the future and the next 100 years.

There has been a PVC manufacturing facility in Newton Aycliffe for over 50 years, when Bakelite first built a PVC resin plant on the site of the former Royal Ordnance munitions factory in 1953.

Hydro Polymers bought the site in 1982, from then-owners British Industrial Plastics, and the company has been successfully operating in the town since that date. The company is among Newton Aycliffe's largest employers.

Hydro Polymers is part of the Norwegian owned Hydro Group, which employs 35,000 people in 40 countries across the world. The company has held a series of celebrations across the globe to celebrate its 100th birthday. This included an event in Cologne, Germany where over 16,000 people attended a performance from Norwegian pop group, A-Ha.