Versatility is proving successful for a long-established Keighley firm which has a healthy order book and is looking to expand its customer base.

Watkinson Lifting and Transport, in Marriner Road, provides warehousing, transport and specialist lifting and installation services to a wide range of industry sectors.

The firm has operated in the town since 1928.

Apart from contracts worth around £650,000 already in the bag, the company is hopeful of winning new work over the summer including the installation of seven escalators at the planned Titanic project in Belfast.

This is part of a mixed use redevelopment of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard, where the ill-fated liner was built, into retail, commercial and academic use.

Watkinson’s managing director John Metcalfe said the order would be worth around £90,000.

He said: “There’s no disputing the fact that industry has had a bad time for the past couple of years.

“But, in addition to firm orders, we are having discussions with many new and existing clients about potential projects and also making improvements to the way the company operates and performs. The future is looking up.”

With a turnover of around £3 million and 45 full-time employees, Watkinson’s has worked on many prestigious projects around the UK including involvement at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, Canary Wharf, Lloyd’s, Harrods, Gatwick’s North Terminal Interchange and Stansted Airport.

The firm’s specialisation in installing escalators has also seen it working on shopping malls and for the country’s leading retailers.

In the industrial and manufacturing sector a recent contract involved moving the two largest thermoplastic chemical storage tanks to be built in Europe.

The tanks were built by Chemresist of Dewsbury and Watkinson’s transported them to a site next to Rangers football ground at Ibrox Park, Glasgow.

After installing turbines at a paper mill in Scotland, Watkinson’s was hired for a similar job in Portugal where it installed two generating turbines for a paper plant.

Commercial director Mel Lewis said the company had weathered the recession reasonably well and had plenty of work to complete over the summer.

He said: “Although we began life in the 20th century, here we are in the early 21st century still solving the distribution and logistics challenges posed by constantly changing market demands.”