Adventurers wanting to explore life under the ocean waves have made sure business is booming for a Bradford company.

Since it was formed 12 years ago, Otter Water Sports has gone from strength to strength - thanks to the growing interest in sport diving.

In fact, demand is so high that the family firm is now looking for a bigger base.

Otter and its sister company Divers Warehouse were started by diving enthusiast John Womack and his wife Marlene in a three-storey building off Wakefield Road.

Since then sons John and Paul, daughter Tracy and John junior's wife Melanie have all joined the firm and by 1993 they had moved to a 10,000 sq ft building in Manchester Road.

Otter Water Sports is responsible for the manufacture and sales abroad while Divers Warehouse - on the same site - looks after retail business.

But the whole operation has outgrown its home and the companies are looking round for new premises double the size, according to John junior.

"We need at least 20,000 sq ft," he said. "Diving is an up and coming sport - it's really growing every year. As a consequence we are getting busier and busier, mostly because of the manufacturing side, and we are really struggling in terms of space.

"But there is nothing in Bradford at the moment. Ideally we want to build a swimming pool and classrooms in the building so we can hire them out to organisations wanting to teach people to dive.

"A benefit for us is that people will go into the shop next door to buy their equipment. And once we find new premises we will expand as rapidly as we can."

The other advantage of a bigger home will be the space to take on more staff, install more machines and tables, and increase output.

The company currently produces about 4,000 diving suits a year with price tags ranging from £300 to £700.

"We make quality suits rather than concentrating on quantity," John said.

"At the end of the day these suits are life saving - if you are 50 or 60 metres down and they start leaking, you are dead because of the extreme cold."

Perhaps surprisingly, 80 per cent of the market is in the US, with the majority of the remaining British sales going to sport divers.

"We do sell a few to professional divers working on oil rigs and places like that, but most are bought in the shop by sport divers.

"People know our suits are quality - and the word is spreading all the time."

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