SECURING a £5million contract in the Middle East means a Barrowford company will be creating new East Lancashire jobs.

acdc LED took the prize for Deal of the Year after winning a contract to light up a new airport in Oman.

Chief executive officer Gareth Frankland said everybody at the company was delighted to be awarded the prize.

He said: “We are really happy. It is so nice winning awards like these to get recognition from people outside the business.

“We know that we are doing well, but it is a big deal for us for others to see that.”

The contract, at a new terminal at the Muscat International Airport, represents 40 per cent of the Vantage Court business’s turnover for 2013.

It will see the firm provide 8,000 LED downlights, 31,000 metres of lighting, 1,000 metres of Integrex LED products, as well as 2,000 Eclipse luminaries to light up the exterior and the building’s surrounding site and vehicular approaches, together with lighting for the public areas.

The project, which will replace the existing airport, built in 1973, is pencilled in to last until the end of 2014 and the new terminal will handle 12 million passengers every year. Plans are already in the pipeline to eventually accommodate 48 million.

Over the past two years the company, which employs 113 people and enjoys an annual turnover of £12m, has worked on the world’s tallest tower in Dubai and the Olympic bridges in London.

Mr Frankland said the latest deal allowed the company to make a ‘big jump forward’ and said he was thrilled to collect the award, presented by entrepreneurial services team director Helen Clayton, on behalf of the team.

He said: “All of the hard work leading up to being awarded the contract was well worth while.

“It means more jobs, more security and it allows change. We are growing rapidly.

“Winning this award is all good for us. I am really proud and that is not a word I use often. But I am proud of what we do as a company, which is exporting Lancashire values in an honest, straightforward manner. It feels great to be ourselves.”