HEALTH and Safety is booming for a York electronic manufacturing company.

Tele-Products, of Northminster Business Park, Poppleton, predicted that its product, First Stop Safety, which helps businesses comply with health and safety requirements, would turn over more than £10,000 per month by January last year.

The target has not only been exceeded, but two more people have had to be employed this week to cope with a demand which now averages more than £30,000 per month, bringing the total employed there to 11.

First Stop Safety began as a portable appliance tester which, with training, small businesses could use to see whether their electrical appliances complied with Health and Safety regulations.

Later, Sri-Lankan born founder Seggy Segeran began marketing the devices at a series of nationwide training courses in health and safety which included demonstrations of the testers. And sales soared.

Mr Segeran said: "Big firms tend to use their own electrical contractors and many electrical firms were loath to take on the compliance testing for smaller ventures, so there was a distinct need into which Tele-Products was tapping."

The First Stop Safety sales are part of a £750,000 turnover for Tele-Products which has also designed telecom and computer products for small businesses, under the Crucible Technologies trading name, including conversation recording devices for legal or training purposes, headsets and computer telephony integration.

Now the firm, which was the 2002 Evening Press Exporter of the Year, is pitching for the Growth Business of the Year title in the 2004 Evening Press Business of the Year awards.

It is also targeting the Progress Through People title. Having gained Investors in People (IIP) status, the IIP assessor described the multi-tasked staff as "a committed team of individuals who consider that they are encouraged to bring forward their ideas and take pride in seeing those ideas developed to the benefit of the company".

Updated: 11:18 Wednesday, July 14, 2004