A MARINE engineering firm has doubled its workforce and turnover in the past year after breaking into the expanding offshore wind market.

The Tekmar Group, based in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has increased its workforce from 30 to 60 as sales in 2010 rose to £15m, up from £5m the year before.

Its Tekmar Energy division, which was formed in 2008 to produce cable protection devices for offshore wind turbines, last year accounted for half the firms turnover.

In January the original Tekmar Subsea division, founded in 1985 to manufacture products for the oil and gas industry, relocated to a new manufacturing plant at Faverdale in Darlington, as it continues to secure major contracts.

Darlington born company owner and managing director Gary Bland believed the high standards demanded by the oil and gas market had prepared it to make an immediate impact in offshore wind.

He said: "The component that we deliver represents 7per cent of the cost of a windfarm, but it protects the cable which represents 90 per cent of the risk.

"The oil and gas industry is where we cut our teeth as all the equipment we deliver has to be third party approved by the insurers, who have documented standards.

"The disciplines we have developed through subsea quality control and manufacturing have given us the perfect platform to diversify.

"With renewable energy it is a new industry and the standards don't exist yet, we are helping to create the standards which in years to come people will have to meet."

The energy division got off to a flying start in its first year, winning a £4.5m contract from German energy company Bard, followed by last year's £7.5m success and a forecasted £15m turnover in 2011.

It has just completed its first UK wind farm project supplying 103 systems to the Walney 1 wind farm in the Irish Sea, leading to a follow up contract for 60.

At Newton Aycliffe it is producing 1,000 cable protection units a year, but has the capacity to double that as demand increases, leading to the creation of more jobs.

Mr Bland said: "We are on a constant recruitment campaign, looking for qualified and experienced engineers and skilled tradesmen for the shop floor.£ The system it produces protects the underwater cables at the point which they link to the turbine.

It is another example of the North-East's growing expertise in offshore wind.

Hartlepool firm JDR Cables is a world leader in producing cables, TAG Energy Solutions is building a plant manufacturing offshore wind turbine foundations, near Stockton, with Tata Steel planning a similar facility at Redcar, Clipper Windpower is developing the world's largest turbine blade at a £25m plant near Newcastle, and Europe's leading wind turbine testing factory is at the New and Renewable Energy Centre, in Northumberland.

Mr Bland added: £We are the only region that can deliver a complete windfarm to the industry."

The firms original Subsea division also continues to expand and has recently completed a £1.3 million pipeline repair systems project in Australia and a £5 million contract for a Norwegian firm.