Evening Gazette - Business Supplement
Germ warfare
By Will Sutton Evening Gazette
Bacteria are proving to be very healthy for one Teesside firm.
Cleveland Biotech is using its "living" product as a natural solution to pollution.
Based at Preston Farm Industrial Estate near Stockton, the company breeds micro-organisms which it uses to destroy wastes such as fat, petrol and ammonia.
Biotech has links across the country and has increased its staff numbers from three when it started in 1992 to 15 today.
What began as a fledgling idea has grown into a busy firm, aided by the pressure on government and industry to use environmentally friendly methods.
Biotech's managing director, Ben Hoskyns, said: "For years we were ahead of the times, but in the environmentally conscious world of today we are seeing a rapid rise in interest in our products.
"One way to use bacteria is in hotel and restaurant kitchens to prevent fat blocking drains.
"This can really cause a lot of problems. We had one client who said it had caused a traffic jam on the M50 - nearby pipes had blocked up and waste leaked all over the motorway.
"Our bacteria solution, when put in the pipes, feeds on the fat and creates enzymes which break it down.
"Other solutions to fat blockages include using caustic solutions but that does the pipes no good."
Biotech's growth is proof that the green and clean alternative offered by biomass engineering is making it an emerging industry in the UK.
In March the Teesside firm won a two-year contract to provide grease management systems for restaurants in several UK airports, including Glasgow, Belfast, Newcastle, East Midlands and Cardiff.
And the company has its own team of engineers who support their products with businesses ranging from Inverness to Torquay and Lowestoft to Anglesey.
Local clients include the Parkmore Hotel in Eaglescliffe, Binns in Darlington and Middlesbrough, and Tesco in Durham.
Other big name customers include McDonalds and BHS.
Ben, who has been managing director for two years, said: "The problem we deal with is a universal one and we are hoping to develop our business overseas, especially in Poland, Kuwait and Australia."
Three of Biotech's staff work from an office in Portsmouth but the majority of production takes place in the North-east.
And creating a "living" product means that Biotech's processes are unique compared to any other business.
Ben said: "It's amazing because you can begin with two vats of bacteria and start them growing at exactly the same time and give them exactly the same product but get a completely different yield."
The company is also branching out by developing micro organisms to deal with oil and petrol, as well as working on neutralising ammonia in water supplies.
Ben said: "If our ideas come off this year, then the results could be staggering.
"There is some competition in the industry but we have been around the block and I don't think there is the same level of expertise as we have here."
The company is owned by a number of private investors and Ben was appointed as managing director after the previous MD of ten years, Edward Winfield, became an executive vice-chairman on the company's board.
Ben grew up in Darlington and said that coming back to the North-east has been a welcome experience.
He spent nine years working away in London and Africa in accounting and insolvency but couldn't wait to return to his roots.
Ben said: "This is a wonderful part of the world and the people here are all about 'live and let live'.
"In the North-east you have more space and there is a lack of congestion.
"Plus running a small business is all I have ever wanted to do.
"One moment you can be dealing with an employee or on the phone to a client, and the next minute you might be dealing with invoices.
"You are involved in everything."
Name of company: Cleveland Biotech
No of employees: 15
Managing Director: Ben Hoskyns
Start-up date: December, 1992
Website: www.clevebio.com
