A COMPANY is planning to create 100 jobs on Tyneside as part of an expansion plan.

Door-to-door leaflet distribution company Amaro, based at Gateshead, will also be creating 2,500 jobs across the UK as it extends its operations to Yorkshire, the Midlands and the North-West within the next year.

The company has two sites at Metro Riverside, where it employs 200 people, but plans to create at least 100 more jobs there.

Managing director Robert Greener set up the company in 1999 and it is predicted turnover will reach between £12 and 15m next year. He believes turnover could reach £100m within the next three years.

Mr Greener said there was a gap in the market for a professional service offering door-to-door leaflet and magazine delivery as this work was previously carried out by part-time staff or by schoolchildren for pocket money.

Amaro expanded last year when it opened its national headquarters at larger premises in Gateshead. Eventually, it hopes to employ up to 1,000 people in the North-East.

Amaro is one of the UK's largest distributors of brochures, magazines, catalogues, directories, newsletters and samples, serving clients that range from local government to individual retailers.

The company, which was formed in 1997 by Mr Greener in the Blaydon Business Centre, makes about one million deliveries a month and has plans to increase that to one million deliveries a week.