AN IT consultancy whose numbers rocketed from three to eight has had to move out of offices at Knapton into premises five times as big, in Acomb, York.

Now with the extra room of its first-floor offices in a large Victorian house in York Road, David Sellars, chief executive of Selcom Systems, hopes to double staff in the next year.

Selcom Systems' huge growth spurt - from £250,000 turnover to £500,000 in the last six months - is on the back of a number of big contracts in the publishing industry, including Pearsons, Bookseller and Penguin Books.

Adrian Brotherton, who has been managing director for the past 12 months, said: "The company has recently been faced with the issue of moving lock, stock and barrel to London, but we decided on York. The main reason is strategic, particularly because of cheaper overheads, but also to surf the wave of the boom in IT which the city is enjoying, and it is likely to continue for some time to come.

"Apart from the demand for our services in the publishing industry, we gained a huge fillip from the birth of a new division focussed on internet technology."

Updated: 09:21 Tuesday, May 28, 2002