A PUBLICAN whose first night takings amounted to just £1.95 when he took over a Barnard Castle hostelry three years ago has plans to brew up to 20,000 pints of his own beer a week for the worldwide market.

The Castle Wall Wine Bar soon became one of the most popular watering holes in town, and Chris Burns' company, Wear Group, now owns three pubs and a restaurant. But his latest venture will see the company take over new workshops and offices at the town's Harmire Enterprise Park.

The workshops will be used to produce traditional ales for the global market, as well as for wholesaling wine direct to shops and restaurants in the UK.

"I feel that global brewers are turning their back on traditional ales so I have teamed up with a master brewer who is going to create a Teesdale bitter and Teesdale premium ale from traditional recipes," said Mr Burns. "We have the capability, and hope to be brewing up to 20,000 pints a week within a year."

The offices will also house a call centre, trading as WearCom, which will sell mobile communications and new data technologies, as well as being the base for the group's administration centre.

This will be complemented by WearCom moving into the front of the Co-op store in Barnard Castle to retail its phone products, including the revolutionary Blackberry handset system.

"It is a brand new piece of kit that can receive and send emails; in fact it is a hand-held office which allows you to be completely mobile," said Mr Burns.

He hopes to move into the Co-op by the end of the month and is currently in talks with the company to take a similar concession in five of its other stores.

Mr Burns paid tribute to Buildings for Business - a partnership between UK Land Estates and the regional development agency One NorthEast - which has rented the new buildings to him on a three-year tenancy.

"Over the past three years we've grown significantly and now have over 30 staff," he said. "Buildings for Business' supportive attitude towards small businesses and their need for flexibility in terms of leases will enable us to take on additional space as we need it.

"In 2005 we hope to employ a further 15 staff and meet our projected turnover of £2.5m," he added.