FLAMING heck! A North Yorkshire company - which employs only 30 people - has landed a 'whopper' of a contract to put its new technology into every Burger King on the planet.

In a deal thought to be worth about £780 million, the North Duffield-based Powercut Group will install a revolutionary heat exchanger in BK's 17,000 bars, and will also treble its tiny workforce within a year.

The heat exchangers will convert waste heat from the 360 degrees centigrade flame grills - where the chain's famous Whopper burger comes to life - into energy. This will provide the bars with hot water and air conditioning, saving the restaurant chain between 25 per cent to 50 per cent in electrical energy costs.

But the deal is too hot for Powercut to handle alone and, while the firm handles all 150 UK installations, it has licensed the technology to another firm, Vent Master, to handle the rest of the world.

The firm is coy about the value of the deal, beyond dubbing it "a multi-million pound return."

But based on its own calculations of between £50,000 and £70,000 per installation, the deal would mean at least £9 million plus whatever has been negotiated under the licensing agreement.

No sooner was the contract announced by Steve Mongan, one of the founders of Powercut at Tower House Business Centre in York in 1994, when the company has had to grapple with the problems of success.

He said: "We have a skills shortage. We immediately need ten new people and we have advertised in vain for sheet metal workers, fabricators, electricians and pipe work fitters. I have been forced to subcontract some of the work out." He said that there was room for the expansion which would take place in three linked factory units on the industrial estate - well equipped due to an investment of about £750,000 over the last three years in research and development as well as tools.

Mr Morgan believes that the Burger King contract is the start of a massive rush by companies fearing that they would be heavily penalised by the UK government's climate change levy which from next April taxes massive energy consumption.

"We have had interest expressed in our product from several huge hotel and restaurant chains. This is just the beginning."

Charles Peal, loss control manager for Burger King in the UK and Southern Ireland said: "The flame grills which give our burgers their unique flavour can be compared to having a barbecue burning full blast in the kitchen. Traditionally, heat exchangers were far too large to be practical in such an environment.

"Powercut has developed a unit for us which is 90 per cent smaller than anything else on the market which means that the exchanger can be installed virtually at the point of the heat dissipation - effectively turning waste into high grade energy."