A COMMERCIAL hunch 12 years ago has paid dividends to two North Yorkshire entrepreneurs who have sold their venture in a major deal.

Alan Tallentire, 64, and Michael Taplin were running a national electronic security company, which included CCTV among its products, when they had the idea for their venture, Added Value Administration Limited (AVA), Bedale.

Having launched it, they have now sold it for "a significant, but undisclosed sum" in a multi-million pound deal advised by Alistair Duncan and Mike Ward, of York-based lawyers, Denison Till.

Their Wetherby-based business led to them joining a national membership urban security body and they recognised the need for AVA which provides outsourced business processes and services such as research, administration, events management, business development and lobbying, to a range of membership associations, government departments and voluntary organisations.

Now the two men have sold the £1.5 million turnover AVA, which has 20 staff at offices in Market Place, Bedale, and at Westminster, London, to Essentia Group Ltd, Glasgow.

They will stay with the business through the transition and then to help with its development.

Essentia Group provides similar services, largely to the pharmaceutical, clinical research, voluntary and public sector, and has 450 associates at three offices in Newcastle, Brora and Glasgow, both in Scotland.