A FAMILY-run North Yorkshire business has just dispatched its largest order - nearly three miles of hoses to a diamond mine in Angola.

The £137,000 contract was won by Hoseshop Ltd, a family firm based in Follifoot, near Harrogate, which beat competition from a South African firm to secure the tender.

The North Yorkshire-manufactured hoses will be shipped 4,600 miles to the Somiluana diamond mine after being selected for their quality and durability.

They will be used to take water away from the riverbeds to enable teams to search for the lucrative stone.

Mike Shakespeare, owner and managing director of Hoseshop, said he was delighted to win the milestone contract, and welcomed the potential for further work with the client.

He said: “This was a fantastic contract for Hoseshop to win and is the largest order we have had.

“Our customer was very impressed by our service and flexibility to accommodate his packing requirements. He has already sent further inquiries to us.”

Mr Shakespeare said the order came through an online enquiry and was “completely out of blue”.

He said: “We received an enquiry online so I sent over a quote. It wasn’t until they got back to confirm the order that we found out what it was for and where it was going. I couldn’t believe it.

“We’ve never had an order like this before. It purely came from our website, they obviously found us online and wanted to find out more.

The team at the Somiluana mine will use the hoses to pump water away from the mining area and into natural watercourses.

In the case of riverbed deposits, sections of the river are temporarily diverted during the dry season so that the mine team can search for diamonds.

Hoseshop was able to offer a technical specification for the quality of the 4.8km of high-pressure layflat hose which was supplied in 200-metre lengths and in three different sizes, 4” bore, 6” bore and 8” bore. Hoseshop also supplied the couplings to join the hoses together.

Having secured such a lucrative, worldwide deal, Mr Shakespear, 50, is now hoping to continue to expand Hoseshop’s product range and look to make inroads into the USA market. The company has already picked up an order to supply hoses to the US Army for operations in Iraq.

Hose Shop is a division of Shakespeare Hydraulics Ltd., which was established in August 1989 and is still a family owned and run business.

The wider business supplies parts and servicing to many industries including water/utility, construction, rail, machine tool, manufacturing, automotive, off-shore, agriculture and food production.