AN AWARD-winning Teesside fuel testing company is looking forward to a bright future after being acquired by Lloyd’s Register.

Guardian Marine Testing (GMT), which is based at the Wilton Centre and specialises in the management of marine fuel quantity and quality, was acquired in a deal agreed in March last year.

A year on, the business has been re-named Lloyd’s Register GMT Ltd (LR GMT), and has grown to 56 staff with access to 238 offices around the world.

As part of the buy-out deal the original management team was retained and tasked with running the newly joined up operations from its Wilton Centre base near Redcar.

Andrew Shaw, managing director, said the deal was great news for the company which was set up in 2007.

He said: "I started out with my fellow directors Paul Livingston and Andrew McEwen and we grew to 12 staff by 2011. After doing a deal to service the requirement of Lloyd’s Register (LR) fuel testing that year, our work increased by 200 per cent and we grew the staff to 36 overnight.

"The main significance of becoming part of LR is the fact we have the security of a large corporation which has 9,300 employees in 238 countries, a turnover of £1bn and is the largest charity in the UK, which invests in many beneficial matters on a global basis.

"While our strength previously was very much on a European basis, we now have business in all four corners of the globe."

He said they are the marine industry's only fuel testing service which is a part of what is known as "class".

"This is a policing process in the marine sector where every ship sailing must be 'classed' and undergo regular MOT-style checks meaning that they are effectively certified as being sea worthy," he said.

"Our new set-up means that we are now in a position to deliver the world’s best marine testing service with an assured backup financially for any future plans for growth."

Lloyd’s Register (LR) is a global engineering, technical and business services organisation wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and engineering.

Founded in 1760 as a marine classification society, LR now operates across many industry sectors, with over 9,000 employees in 78 countries.