Management at York-based Gasflair, the growing domestic fire and cooker retailer, is feeling a warm glow this Christmas with the news that they are being offered a £500,000 financing line for expansion.

The cash is bound to help the £8 million turnover company, at Millfield Works in Millfield Lane, Nether Poppleton which already has seven shops in Yorkshire and Tyne & Wear with a total of 45 staff and is ranging for acquisitions in a market left wide open when British Gas pulled out.

The money is being made available by the Leeds office of Lloyds TSB Development Capital (LDC) which first invested in Gasflair when Peter Stevens, managing director bought the business in 1997.

Stuart Rhodes, director of LDC, said: "This injection of development capital will support the business in its next stage of growth."

Gasflair's latest acquisition has entailed buying with separate funding a Firesides outlet in Leeds, offering people a second city centre outlet. It has also taken on as its non-executive chairman Bill McGrath, the former British Gas retail managing director.

Mr Stevenson is still on the lookout for new Gasflair sites in areas just outside city or town centres but within their ring roads. There is no immediate prospect of expanding the staff of ten based in York, but there is a likelihood of more jobs there as the firm adds to its retail portfolio.

He said: "The withdrawal of British Gas from the domestic appliance market has created an opportunity for us to expand our share of the market through acquisitions and development of new sites.

"We are also planning to expand our product range and have recently gained national distribution rights for Berry and Dimplex electric fires."

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