Work has started on a £3 million building in Shipley for an expanding dental equipment supplier which has grown from a two-man operation to employing 40 people.

The 25,000 sq ft building opposite the Shipley tax offices will provide space for expansion at Ortho-Care UK, which has become one of the largest independent orthodontic supply companies in the UK.

Founders and joint managing directors Kelvin Scott and Richard Garford are hoping the business will move into its new headquarters during the Christmas holidays.

The pair met while working for another Bradford dental products firm and decided there was a gap in the market for a single supplier of a range of dental equipment.

Ortho-Care supplies items such as tooth braces and other equipment for orthodontists and hospitals in the private and public health sectors across the UK. The firm has become well-known for its range of own- label products.

It also provides accessories and equipment such as brackets, wire and laboratory products.

Around 15 per cent of sales are from exports to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Ireland and Australia.

The company now has a full-time sales manager focusing on exports which are seen as ripe for expansion. Ortho-Care started operating in 1982 from rented space in the former Drummonds mill on Lumb Lane, Bradford, before moving into a unit in Oxford Place, off Wapping Road, where it has been based since.

Since then the firm has acquired the whole 16,000 sq foot premises.

The company has outgrown the Oxford Place site where even meeting rooms are used as offices.

Mr Garford said: “We’ve run out of office space and the warehousing side is also limited now that we carry thousands of items of stock. When we transfer stock from the general warehouse to the order picking area we need to open two roller shutter doors and everyone feels the cold.”

The building will include a conference room with video conferencing that will enable Ortho-Care to increase its training and transmit overseas lectures for dental nurses and technicians. There will also be a staff room and a gymnasium.

Mr Scott said the site, close to Saltaire and Shipley and trains and bus routes, had been carefully chosen. He said: “We considered a number of possible sites but this suits the needs of the business and our staff. It provides a vastly improved working environment. We’re making this investment when the outlook for the business here in the UK, which remains our core market, and abroad remains promising.”

The building was designed by Robinson Architects, which sold the land to Ortho-Care, and will be built by Ilkley’s QSP Construction. Project management is in the hands of MNB Partnership of Pudsey.