The crisis-ridden airline industry is a chilly place to be right now but, thanks to an Essex company, there is at least one place where even the most put-upon executive will feel cosy and warm.

Future's bright - Dean Chughtai with one of the firm's innovative radiators that will be seen in Stansted Airport's new terminal Picture: ROBIN WOOSEY 7SKE59

That's because the interior of the new £60m terminal at Stansted Airport is being defended from the winter chill by Basildon-based heating equipment supplier Modular Heating Sales.

The company, the biggest privately-owned commercial heating supplier in the UK, has beaten off competition from its rivals to win an order for nearly 400 of its Matrix convector radiators for the new building, as well as five of its Jupiter 300 Kw gas fired high efficiency boilers and a fan dilution flue system.

Dean Chugtai, business development manager at MHS, said: "This really is a very significant contract for us. Essentially we are suppliers of commercial contract radiators, but we have realised that there is an increasingly big market in what's called designer radiators, in line with the success of home improvement programmes such as Changing Rooms and Home Front.

For this contract, for example, it was imperative to select radiators that would not detract from the overall design, so they had to be specially tailored for the project."

The deal is the latest chapter in what has been an astonishing 12 months for the 20-year-old company.

Its annual turnover has now reached £14m, which last year helped it to reach number 41 in the Indy 100 2001, the Deloitte and Touche-organised index of the fastest growing companies in the UK.

Published Wednesday, March 20, 2002