A high-tech Scottish company with radar-based products has decided to beam in on York - and create up to 22 sales jobs over the next two years.

Measurement Devices Ltd (MDL), which already has a small satellite office of eight people at Minster Business Park in Upper Poppleton, has launched a £1million building programme for a new European sales headquarters nearby on the estate.

Called Acer House, the 6,000 sq ft building will form the basis of a growing sales force to market the firm's laser-based measurement technology, as well as its positioning and navigation systems.

The sales offices, which are being provided by Northminster Properties as part of its Wykeham Road phase of individual properties available to buy for owner-occupation, should be completed by August when sales people move in. The numbers there are expected to accelerate to 30 by the end of 2007.

"It is a period of huge expansion for us," said Elaine Ball, MDL's marketing director.

"We are doing almost exactly the same thing in Houston, Texas. We export 80 per cent of our products which are manufactured at our headquarters in Aberdeen. York has proved to be ideally central for the whole of the UK."

The company began in Aberdeen 22 years ago, making positioning systems for vessels in the oil industry.

One of its biggest selling products is the Fanbeam system, which detects and locks on to reflective foil on ships to ensure that they do not collide.

It has also launched the LaserAce Hypsometer, a laser system which measures height, girth, growth angle and volume of trees which is revolutionising the forestry market. Its systems are also used in the mining and quarrying industries.

Miss Ball said: "We started off with a small two-person sales office at Castle Howard and so appreciated the advantages that we decided to expand here, in anticipation of a big expansion in our number of products."

Updated: 11:36 Wednesday, January 11, 2006