INTERNATIONAL opportunities and new "exciting" recruits are enabling one of the largest independent TV production companies outside of London to accelerate its growth. 

True North, which is headquartered in Leeds, has seen a dramatic increase in turnover over recent years. This year, the firm says it will see turnover of £10m - a 30% increase from the previous year, and a 60% climb from two years ago.

Managing director, Marc Allen, said: "The challenge this year has been managing dramatic growth. It is up 30% from last year and this is steep growth. We've now got to push on over the next hill - it is an exciting time for us.

"International opportunities are a massive growth area for us. We've not jumped on with full commitment yet but we are keeping these things going and when the time is right, we will push them. There is a massive global audience for us to reach.

"China is one of the areas we've been working in. We sell programmes internationally, but there is always the possibility of taking the formats international and doing the commissions in China. We're starting to build trust and relationships in the market."

True North announced last year it is working in partnership with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV9, Beijing-based media company China Intercontinental Communication Center (CICC) and France Television's pioneering digital channel, France O, to produce a documentary series examining the rise of a new generation of talented Chinese designers.

Allen added that a big growth area for the firm is the US and said the company has a few "informal" agreements there. 

True North was founded by Jess Fowle, Andrew Sheldon and Glyn Middleton in 2002. It teamed up with post production specialists Flix Facilities last summer and opened a second office in MediaCity, Salford.

Co founder and creative director, Jess Fowle, said: "There's a lot happening this year and we've got some exciting, talented new people joining the team who will take us into an area of TV making we're not in at the moment.

"One of our challenges is that the power business is in London but because we are based in Yorkshire, we are finding that broadcasters think we will bring something different. It can give us that point of difference. There's a growing awareness from broadcasters that a big proportion of people don't feel they are being represented, so broadcasters are hungry for diversity, which works well for us."

In the past twelve months, more than 600 hours of True North's programmes have been broadcast in the UK. Productions have aired on BBC One, Channel 4, Channel 5, MTV, National Geographic, CBBC, UKTV and Crime and Investigation Network and programmes are watched in 220 countries across the world.

The firm, which started almost 13 years ago out of a bedroom, has a core team of around 50, increasing to around 180 at the height of a project. 

True North Shows coming up this year include Building The Dream for Channel 4, Junior Vets for CBBC and series three of The Valleys for MTV. True North said it also has projects with Channel 5 in the pipeline.

Allen added: "We've got the core business and will always strengthen that but we've got other projects we're working on, which offers us a lot of diversity.

"We need to maintain the sustained growth, but it is about keeping it interesting, too - we will not do growth just for growths sake."