LIVINGSTON-based outdoor equipment firm, Highlander (Scotland), which has a licence to produce official merchandise for London 2012, has secured new contracts worth more than £500,000 in the run up to the Olympics.

In a sign that organisers are preparing for bad weather, Highlander will supply the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games with 250,000 ponchos for spectators.

It is also producing 5000 Olympic backpacks for oil giant BP.

The Westfield shopping centre has put in an order for 100,000 Olympic canvas bags.

The company, which outsources production of the goods overseas, has also secured a contract with Proctor & Gamble to supply backpacks.

It said it is in the late stages of talks with two further multinational organisations to supply 2012 branded goods.

Director Ramin Golzari, said: "These latest wins are firmly putting us on the UK and wider international map.

"We have opened up new channels and markets to complement our existing customer base and have also started to supply other national retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, John Lewis and River Island with Olympic branded goods."

Highlander secured a licence in February 2011 to produce Olympic-branded items such as backpacks, shoulder bags, wallets, travel accessories and outdoor camping products for the London games.

This helped it to a 20% rise in turnover last year and the company forecasts this will rise by another 30% in the current year.

Mr Golzari said: "The impact of the Games is marked. As a snapshot of exactly what this has meant to the company we just need to look at our sales figures for May – a 100% increase on the same month last year."