Express expansion for food tester

Linlithgow-based Express Microbiology already offers salmonella monitoring across the country, but is now building partnerships with similar firms to offer nationwide food-testing services.

Managing director Jennifer Newton said the company was preparing to further expand its premises next year to cope with extra demand for its services and that her plans should see turnover grow from 1 million at present to 5m within the next three years.

Newton said: "The challenge with testing food samples is that we have to get them back to the laboratory on the same day as picking them up. Since we moved from Glenrothes to Linlithgow in 2005, we have extended our coverage across the whole of Scotland. Now the new partnerships should help us to grow throughout the UK. Our salmonella testing business already has clients as far afield as Devon, because it operates through the post."

Express - which also counts Young's Seafood and Diageo, Scotland's largest whisky distiller, among its clients - has about 26 staff but expects to grow its headcount to about 60 as the company expands.

Newton launched Express in 2003 as a spin-out from Inverkeithing-based Tatlock & Thomson, an analytical chemistry firm that works in the drinks industry.

Having been a partner at Tatlock & Thomson, Newton saw the chance to grow its microbiology unit as a standalone business.

While her accountants said she wouldn't be able to find bank funding to expand, Royal Bank of Scotland provided 100,000, which helped Express to gain a 110,000 regional selective assistance grant (RSA) from the Scottish Government last year as part of the second phase of its expansion, involving the creation of 17 jobs.

Graham Galloway, managing director at RBS Commercial Banking, said: "Our support for Express reflects the experience, drive and expertise Jennifer brings to this business."