WEST Yorkshire water treatment company Aquatrust has moved to larger premises and opened a satellite office in the first step towards developing a national network of bases.

Aquatrust Water & Ventilation Ltd has moved to a new Cleckheaton base after outgrowing its previous Liversedge offices.

It has also opened an office in St Helens covering the North West.

The company, which launched in 2013 with two directors and three staff and now employs around 30 people, exceeded sales targets for 2015/16 and aims to increase turnover this year to £1.4 million.

It has won some significant contracts that will have a positive impact on targets and is also developing a new website.

Aquatrust specialises in a range of Legionella control services and water regulation compliance and clients include local authorities, facilities management companies, the hotel and leisure and healthcare sectors.

Gary Russell, managing director, said: “Over the years we have grown through recommendation, repeat business and referral and developed fairly organically.

“In 2015 however, we decided that we needed to be more proactive and develop the business through investment and marketing and that’s what we’ve done.

“I personally attended some development with someone that inspired me in business - Michelle Mone. We moved key people into sales roles and we created a marketing role.

“To deliver the business we knew that there was opportunity for we opened our new branch in St Helens, something we had toyed with for a while, and we invested in a fleet of new vans.

“We also have plans to diversify the services we offer by expanding our training delivery and offer an electronic monitoring system to make compliance easier for clients.”

Aquatrust was established by Gary Russell and a business partner who has since sold his shares.

He received personal mentoring from business tycoon, Baroness Michelle Mone, which inspired him to pursue Aquatrust’s planned business expansion.

Staff recently took part in an away day at Coniston Cold Hotel, near Skipton, to celebrate Aquatrust’s successes and work together on planning future strategy.