SPECIALIST electrical and engineering group Dabbrook has unveiled its new Great Yarmouth headquarters in a move heralded as a great boost for the town.

SPECIALIST electrical and engineering group Dabbrook has unveiled its new Great Yarmouth headquarters in a move heralded as a great boost for the town.

The new site at Signal House, Morton Peto Road, doubles the size of the premises for the company and its 30 employees.

The move follows a “significant interest” taken in the company by US-based Tideland Signal's UK subsidiary earlier this year.

Stuart Smith, who founded Dabbrook nearly 30 years ago and is now managing director, told guests at the launch that it was a proud moment for him and for the staff.

It was vital to have extra space after they had outgrown their site in Gorleston and had now invested around £100,000 in the new premises.

“Tideland have invested in me and all our employees and I hope now that we can show them their faith was well founded,” he said.

Tideland president and group chief executive Allen Mitchener was in Yarmouth, from his Houston base, to help celebrate the opening. He said: “We've been working together for 10 years and seen a good relationship grow both through the business and socially. What we have today has evolved from that.”

Great Yarmouth Borough Council managing director Richard Packham, who unveiled a plaque to mark the opening, said it was welcome news amid all the talk of credit crunch and recession.

It helped to build the profile of Great Yarmouth as a town which had much cause for optimism.

The town perhaps had a better profile in America than closer home; something it planned to change with an initiative to promote four key elements, showing that Yarmouth:

knows how to have a good time

is classless and used to accepting people from mariners through to seafront visitors without making judgments

has a rich pedigree in the fishing, marine, leisure, offshore and electrical world

lives on the edge, enjoys taking risks, generates new ideas and welcomes innovation.

Dabbrook are experts in the design, building, installation and maintenance of electrical control systems, offshore navigation aids and large solar power systems.

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