Furniture Clinic, a manufacturer of specialist leather cleaning, repair and restoration products based in Gateshead, is bucking the bucking the recession trend and planning the recruitment exercise to coincide with the purchase of new production line equipment and relocation to larger premises in Tyne and Wear.

The £800,000 project is seen as the next stage in the development of the company founded by managing director Keith Staerck and his son, sales director Ben Staerck. They also recently secured a £163,000 grant for business investment from One North East, the Regional Development Agency (RDA) covering North East England.

Since its launch in 2005 Furniture Clinic, whose clients include a string of top fashion houses and luxury car and yacht manufacturers, has gone from strength to strength. The creation of a new website has helped double turnover each year, with online sales of £30,000 per month making a growing contribution to the annual turnover of more than £1million.

Keith Staerck said: “Furniture Clinic is now the fastest growing company in the leather industry. We want to continue that success by continually improving and investing in our products and the service we offer our customers.We have invested a lot in advertising in the past three years and attracted significant new business and as a result, outgrown our current premises.”

The company also has 13 franchises in operation in the UK. As well as continuing to grow its domestic network, with plans to establish up to 50 franchises over the next three years, Furniture Clinic is looking to expand into the US early next year with the opening of a base in New York.

Ian Williams, director of business and industry at One North East, said: “Furniture Clinic is a real North East success story; a local firm that has succeeded nationally and established an international reputation in its field. It has grown year on year and established a string of high profile clients, but remained equally focused on servicing its core customers in the region and in the leather trade.”

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