The boss of a Bury St Edmunds-based recruitment agency says he has every reason to feel optimistic after seeing growth in the local and international economy.

Amid the doom and gloom of the recession, Energy Resourcing and its sister company Anglian Resourcing formally moved into new purpose-built offices in Eastern Way on Friday.

"We're not being blindly gung-ho about the future," said company director Walter Jackson.

"We know from our international experience with Energy Resourcing and from Anglian Resourcing's locally based growth that economies are picking up. Our aim is to make sure we can continue to capitalise on that pick up."

Energy Resourcing, which was founded less than two years ago, supplies highly specialist staff to national and international companies working in or with the energy sector, including Rolls Royce and General Electric.

It achieved three times its target turnover in its first year and now has offices in the Middle East and Africa.

Anglian Resourcing meanwhile, has a wide range of clients and candidates across different sectors of the local economy.

The new £200,000 offices are nearly double the size of the firm's old offices also in Eastern Way. The firm had moved into those offices just a year ago, anticipating that would be big enough for several years - but have had to move again.

"We're growing at an amazing pace," said Mr Jackson.

The move will also see the firm, which currently employs 13 people, take on some new staff.

Bury MP David Ruffley opened the new offices.

"Energy Resourcing are bucking the trend and showing that it is possible to expand and succeed during a recession," he said.

"Their commitment and dedication to meeting their clients' requirements and going those extra miles - literally travelling the globe to recruit specialist labour - has paid dividends."

Mark Beaumont