A LEADING microbiology laboratory in Daresbury is set to double in size after posting record growth figures.

Perfectus Biomed is set to massively increase its base at Sci-Tech Daresbury, the second time in just over a year that it has done so.

In the past 12 months, demand for the company’s microbiological testing services has doubled – leading to the expansion of its workspace.

Ten new employees have also been recruited within that time, introducing senior roles including a business development manager and a laboratory manager.

Dr Sam Westgate, chief executive officer of Perfectus Biomed, said: “It has been a record year for our team, and this organic growth has meant that we are now starting to outgrow our current workspace.

“As a business, we feel that the time is right to take the next step in our development as we look ahead to the future and prepare to expand our offering even further.

“With demand for our services increasing, it is essential that we are able to expand our workspace without disrupting daily operations.

“Sci-Tech Daresbury offered us the opportunity to take additional workspace directly across the hall from our current space, helping to ensure business as usual in our everyday work to continue delivering excellent services for our clients.

“We’re also very excited to have increased our team size by almost a third in the last year and to have bolstered it with a range of senior and specialist roles – we’re always on the lookout for emerging talent to join our ranks, and we are proud to invite both clients and interviewees to our site here at Techspace One.

“Clients are aware of the prestige of the site and the reputable companies based here, and so location is always a big tick in our box compared to competitors.

“The Sci-Tech Daresbury team does its upmost to ensure that there are beneficial networking events on campus – the team consistently garners business excellence on the campus, and it’s opened up some valuable connections to us over the years that have helped to drive our growth.”

Perfectus Biomed supports companies across the world by providing standard and customised microbiology testing – specialising in antimicrobial, biofilm, viral, fungal, cellular and molecular research.

Its latest expansion will enable the lab teams to have a dedicated workspace for each testing service it provides.

Jayne Furnival, group property director Sci-Tech Daresbury partners Langtree, added said: “Perfectus Biomed is a great success story to emerge from Sci-Tech Daresbury and we’re very proud to have been part of it since the very beginning of their journey.

“Perfectus Biomed is a market leader in the microbiology testing sector, and we’re delighted to be able to offer an inspiring and collaborative home for them to work and build for the future.

“It’s fantastic to be able to share such strong tenant success stories from the campus and we’re excited to watch Perfectus Biomed continue to grow in the coming years.”