EAST Lancashire technology giant Promethean has won its biggest ever European deal, worth up to £12million.

It will see the firm, based in Lower Philips Road, Whitebirk, supplying 8,000 Italian classrooms with its high-tech interactive whiteboards.

The deal was announced as the company’s results for the third quarter of the year were revealed.

They showed slower growth than in the first half of the year, but revenues increased by 25 per cent to £193.7m.

The deal to supply Italian schools is the biggest it has secured in Europe and follows deals in Portugal and Spain.

Promethean is to supply and install 8,000 ActivBoard+2 inter-active whiteboard systems in about 4,000 first grade secondary schools, which teach students aged between 11 and 13 years.

Italy has some 28,000 primary and secondary schools, with about 509,000 classrooms.

This tender will see about seven per cent equipped with interactive whiteboards.

Jean-Yves Charlier, Promethean’s chief executive officer, said: “We are delighted to be awarded this significant tender.

“Each of the three European tenders have adopted Promethean technology and we believe this is confirmation of the quality, functionality, and effectiveness of our integrated solutions.”