YORK based theme park and attraction creator Paragon Entertainments has seen earnings double as the firm delivers on "significantly larger projects".

The business, which employs 80 staff and has 60,000sq ft of manufacturing space in Elvington, saw earnings increase by 97 per cent in 2013 to £0.6 million, with turnover rising to £10 million over the same period.

Reporting its full financial results for the year ending December 31, 2013, bosses reflected on an "important year" for the Group, which saw the business deliver on a number of key projects including the design and build of the new Olympic Museum of the IOC in Switzerland, the £97 million Titanic exhibition in Belfast and the build of the Wallace and Gromit ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Last year also saw the departure of Paragon's chairman Robert Hersov who saw the business through its re-admission to AIM, and Mark Watts who stepped down as non-executive director.

Interim chairman Mark Taylor said: "We embarked on our journey as an AIM-listed company just over two years ago. At that time, we were a small, York-based family company turning over £4.3 million and have now achieved £10 million.

"We are an ambitious company and our progress is testament to the skills and dedication of our staff. Their hard work and determination is now showing benefits."

Paragon chief executive Mark Pyrah added: "The past year has seen a number of exciting and high profile projects with work completed on over 20 major projects plus a number of smaller projects.

"We continue to see considerable growth in the sector and our pipeline of potential opportunities has increased considerably to in excess of £70 million.

"We have been successful in our conversion of this pipeline having already confirmed orders of over £10 million in 2014/2015."