Success has been a rollercoaster ride for a small company on the banks of the Tyne that's having a huge impact on the global games market.

And as Eutechnyx managing director Brian Jobling told the Entrepreneurs Forum, it hasn't peaked yet. Dan Jenkins reports.

IN Hick State County, Cletus Jackson rolls into a local bar for some liquid refreshment to celebrate making a few dollars on his latest load of lumber. After getting the lowdown from the bartender about the next hotspot for a deal, he loads up his truck, refuels and hits the road to buy, sell or swindle his way to a fortune.

It's the Big Mutha Truckers method of business management, and while it works for computer characters Cletus and Co, it is not the way their creator Brian Jobling came to win the accolade of Northern Regional Entrepreneur of the Year 2003.

Eutechnyx, the company he started in 1987 at the age of 18, is riding high in the US games chart with Big Mutha Truckers, which is outselling Spiderman and Tomb Raider and is chasing Enter the Matrix for fifth place. But the fact that the game has prompted threats from real redneck truckers in America's South is symbolic of Brian's less than easy journey to the top.

Revealing the Eutechnyx story at the Entrepreneurs Forum at the company's headquarters in Gateshead, he said: "When I was a teenager I couldn't afford to buy games and my family got fed up of me asking for them. So I thought 'I know, I'll write some software and copy games'. Friends bought it and eventually I sent it to a publisher."

This first burst of entrepreneurship was shortlived, however, when his parents began receiving letters from solicitors pointing out the illegality of games piracy, and threatening retribution.

So Brian turned his idea on its head and instead wrote software to stop people copying games.

What followed is a saga of buy-outs, sell-offs and buy-ins, as his early love of games led him into business.

Originally known as Zeppelin Games, the motivation was simple. "I wanted to make great games," he said. "Unfortunately, the other directors wanted to build up the company as far as possible then sell it. When you have a management team pulling in different directions, inevitably you make a loss."

He vowed never to be in the same position again and got some books to learn accounts.

In 1989, the company employed 15 people and had a turnover of £179,000. Brian updated its image with a new logo and progress came with a new game, Jockey Wilson Darts Challenge. This paled into insignificance compared with the phenomenal success that followed with Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager, which dominated the games charts. It meant Brian was able to pay back all the money he had borrowed.

With his philosophy of "Hire good people, teach them what you know but bow to their greater knowledge", he recruited his brothers, Darren, as sales manager and negotiator, and Paul, in marketing. By now turnover was peaking at £400,000.

In the 1990s, Sega and Nintendo took over the UK market, so the brothers headed west where business in the US was still buoyant.

They sold Zeppelin to Texas company Merit Studios for £2.2m then had to sit back and watch as their shares nosedived. Eventually Merit put Zeppelin up for sale which, thanks to their hot game at the time, Total Drivin, attracted interest from Sony.

The deal did not come off, and the brothers completed a management buyback of the company, renaming it Eutechnyx Limited, with French company Infogrames acquiring a minority shareholding. It was at this time they developed some of their best known games, Le Mans 24 Hours and Max Power Racing.

In 1999, with the market rocketing, the family bought the company back, and by 2000 Eutechnyx was independent once again.

Referring to the title of his presentation to the forum - Why selling your business is not necessarily entrepreneurial - Brian said: "When you sell your company you no longer get the opportunities to be entrepreneurial. Once you have handed over the reins to someone else, you become an employee.

"My advice is don't give your company away if you can avoid it. We have spent our lives trying to buy ours back."

Since then there have been two more offers for Eutechnyx that have been turned down.

"We couldn't put our management and employees through that again," said Brian. "The stress of possibly going through another downturn just isn't worth it."

It is care like this that helped Eutechnyx attain Investors in People status faster than any other UK company in only three weeks. The fact that both potential purchasers later went into receivership was also testimony to Brian's good judgement.

What is more, the future for Eutechnyx is looking very bright.

Today, the company, which employs 70 people in Gateshead, is one of the world's leading interactive software developers specialising in the design, development and implementation of driving games.

It has a Japanese/US publisher in Namco (the company behind Pac-Man) and sub-contracts work to companies in the UK, Amsterdam and Montreal. It has published 360 games in total, including 007 Racing and F1 World Grand Prix 2000. It owns the rights to Big Mutha Truckers and Street Racing Syndicate, games that take a team of 35 up to 18 months to develop.

Sony PlayStation 3 is on the horizon, and Brian believes Eutechnyx is heading for a period of maximum growth that should peak in 2004/5 before another period of consolidation.

It was recently included in the PWC Sunday Times Fast Track 100, making it one of the top 100 technology companies in the UK, the Deloitte and Touche Fast 50 for the North-East region and the Deloitte and Touche Fast 500 for Europe.

Darren Jobling, now director of business development, received special commendation from the Duke of York in this year's Lloyds-TSB Export Awards.

So would they have been in a stronger position without the buy-outs? Brian, who lives with his partner and two young children in Rowlands Gill, Gateshead, said: "Each time we have done a deal we have doubled our turnover, and of course access to funds is very important if you are to grow. But we have been incredibly lucky. A massive number of companies in our industry just haven't made it."

* The Entrepreneurs Forum provides opportunities for emerging North-East entrepreneurs to meet and learn from established business leaders who in turn are able to share experiences. Its core objective is to support emerging entrepreneurs who could play a key role in the economic regeneration of the North-East. For more information visit www.entrepreneursforum.net, or call 0870 850 2233.