A LYE business is looking to the future after securing a series of overseas orders worth close on £7 million.

The Boro Foundry, which manufactures and supplies castings and machine parts, has been looking to clinch deals abroad after getting involved with UK Trade and Investment last year.

Now, the family-run business has tapped into the waste to energy overseas market with great effect after securing contracts in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany worth a total of £ 610,000.

Annual deals are expected to be secured over the next five years and the company is looking to capture deals further afield, with markets in Jamaica, Switzerland and other European countries.

Bev Edwards, finance director at the company, based on Stourvale Road, said: "We traded within the UK for many years but the market place is forever changing.Thirty years ago, we knew where our customer base was, nowadays it's very fluid - we don't put all our eggs in one basket.

"With the domestic market being quiet for a while, we decided to look seriously at new opportunities overseas and brought in Nick Morrell to help with business development and it has paid off."

She added: "As a result of these orders, we will have to take on more staff as we only have a current workforce of 30 plus. But recruiting new staff won't be easy because we struggle to find people with the necessary skills.

"We've allowed our skills to diminish with the lack of apprenticeships and we will probably have to train up our own staff as a result."