A huge increase in the number of obese people is providing a lucrative additional market for a West Yorkshire engineering firm, which saw sales of specialist medical equipment rise by 13 per cent in the past year.

Ferno UK, in Cleckheaton, has developed bariatric equipment including ambulance trolleys, wheel chairs, evacuation chairs and hospital trolleys for overweight patients. The range includes the only electro-hydraulic trolley in the UK’s pre-hospital market that will lift a patient weighing 55 stones.

The firm has seen a rise in demand for bariatric equipment from emergency services and hospitals in the face of the growing obesity problem and sales have grown to 20 per cent of US-owned Ferno’s £12 million turnover.

Managing director Jon Ellis said: “The rise in obesity in the UK population has required Ferno to design, develop and manufacture a range of specialist medical equipment to treat the nation’s bariatric condition and provide the medical profession with a solution to what is a growing problem.

“Ambulance trusts have had to invest significant amounts in bariatric ambulances in recent years and hospitals are increasing the number of extra-wide, reinforced beds as the demands of larger patients put greater pressure on the system and its staff.”

Ferno UK, which last year celebrated its 40th anniversary, employs 80 people at its base which is also meeting growing demand for bariatric equipment in Italy, Spain, Germany and France.