Otley-BASED software company Chevin has moved into its new European technology research and development headquarters.

Leeds North West MP Harold Best

performed the opening ceremony at the mill, in Leeds Road, which has been bought and refurbished by Otley firm, P H Plasterers.

Around £400,000 has been spent by P H Plasterers on refurbishing the old Appletree Fabrics building, which will have additional office space available later this year.

By the time the development is completed, more than £500,000 will have been invested in the former mill.

Chevin was founded by Leeds University graduate Phil Snell back in 1989 as Chevin Software Engineering Ltd. He worked out of his grandmother's attic for a number of years after a career working for BT, EMI and writing software for a fruit machine games company.

In September last year, Chevin secured an investment of £3m in equity finance from MTI, the UK's leading early stage hi-tech venture captial investor.

Chevin now has offices in Bedfordshire, in Washington DC and Melbourne in Australia.

Users of Chevin's flagship product, TeVISTA, include British Telecome, Reuteurs, Securicor, British Gas and ICL.

TeVISTA, is a powerful realtime

management system which allows companies to monitor their computer networks - either local area or wide area and helps prevent downtime.

The company is now planning a major recruitment drive to strengthen its

development team based in Otley, when it will move into additional office space in the Chevin Mill building.

Chief executive officer John Earley said Chevin was committed to staying in Otley, no matter how much it grows internationally.

He said: "We will remain in Otley. The

quality of life here is so good."

Mr Earley said computer staff from outside the area were attracted by everything the area has to offer and he believes Chevin will soon be the most successful in Otley, if not one of the most successful in Yorkshire.

Chevin runs its own training programme, and hopes to recruit a number of young people when the new centre is completed this summer.

In the first quarter this year, Chevin's turnover was equal to that in the whole of last year.

Mr Earley also said people were wrong to blame new economy companies for the current slump in the United States.

Phil Snell, who is now chief technical officer for Chevin, said: "If we are to keep developing some of the best and most innovative network management products in our market, we need to invest in the best people.

"The UK is home to a community of highly talented software scientists and Chevin's new research facility in Otley will let us take advantage of this skills base."

Mr Best welcomed the expansion of Chevin. He said it was something he had been looking forward to seeing in the area.

"It's a way in which we can turn old mills into new jobs. I think it's wonderful. It's the kind of thing we should be encouraging."

Mr Best also praised the development of technology companies in the area, and said it would not only encourage new skills in the area, but help similar businesses.

Alan Hartle, of P H Plasterers, said work on the mill would continue throughout the summer.

"We started to remove asbestos from the site back in February 1999. Then we demolished a couple of lean-toos at the side and round the back, where we created the car park.

"We had only just appointed Dacre Son and Hartley as our agents when Chevin got in touch with them looking for new premises so we were able to work closely with the company to make sure the offices we created were what they wanted."

Local contractors have been used on the scheme wherever possible, including building contractor David Prothero, who is actually carrying out all the main structural work.

Mr Hartle said they had been very lucky as when they bought the building, the roof had been stable and most of the internal structure was sound.

"We haven't had to do a great deal of structural work except for on the ground floor, where we removed irregular and broken timber flooring and replaced it with a concrete floor.

"Doing the flooring alone will cost around £30,000 and by the time the building is

completed, we will have put around a quarter of a million into it, including the purchase price."

l Anyone interested in findout out more about Chevin's software or job opportunities at the company can ring Annie Johnson on (01943) 854300. People interested in the remaining office space which will be developed over the sumer can contact Roger Hall at Dacres on (01943) 463321.