A Co Tyrone firm has achieved 50% growth in sales after tracking market data.

Acheson and Glover in Fivemiletown, the 15th largest producer of concrete and quarry products in the UK and Ireland used facts and figures from Invest NI's Business Information Centre to explore opportunities for paving and walling products in Britain.

The company, which has businesses in Britain and the Republic of Ireland, used the data to develop a new business strategy to accelerate sales in Britain.

Stephen Acheson, managing director of Acheson and Glover, said that the information gleaned revealed an opportunity of up to £170m worth of sales.

"Our paving and walling products are sold in Ireland through a combination of our own outlets and sales through builders' merchants," he said.

"However, the market research showed that distribution in Britain is almost 100% through builders' merchants.

"We decided to address this by means of a very focused and tailored PR campaign that targeted the independent builders' merchants there.

"We launched a new website and developed a year-long ad campaign. Our PR campaign won the award for the best use of advertising at the Construction Marketing Awards, beating Redrow Homes and Caterpillar.

"Sales of our paving products increased by 50% and we have now secured a major contract to supply up to 70 new builders' merchants."