A MIDDLEWICH company has scooped a 'Smart Award' of around £130,000 to help develop one of the products of the future.

The award, from the Small Business Service, recognises ingenuity and is designed to turn innovative, bright ideas into commercially viable products.

And a project by Gas Injection Ltd, with premises at the King Street Industrial Estate, has been granted an award for its revolutionary gas-injection plastic moulding process.

The fruits of the company's labour is seen in television cabinets, domestic appliances and car mouldings.

Company chairman Terry Pearson said: "We are very pleased to have won the award.

"We sell equipment throughout the world to plastic processing industries and this will significantly help to keep us ahead of our competitors in Germany and the Far East."