A NEW generation is now in charge at Caltech Lifts, the Dundee-based lift supply and maintenance company.

Howard Renwick, who founded the company in 1978, has officially passed the baton on to sons Andrew and Fraser.

Both became directors of the business in recent months, with Andrew assuming the role of managing director in March.

Although he has officially retired, Mr Renwick Snr plans to remain a director and continue to have some input into marketing the business.

Andrew Renwick said: "My father's decision to leave a full-time job to set up his own company at quite a young age would not have been an easy one to make, but he was determined to succeed and highly ambitious.

"It is important for us to continue with the same values and vision with which our father set out as we continually look to grow the business."

Caltech, which supplies and maintains passenger, goods, disabled access and stair lifts to the public and private sectors, turns over £1.3 million. It is aiming to raise that figure to £2.2m in the next two years after being accepted on to Business Gateway's growth pipeline programme.

The company started life as Instrument and Control Engineering 35 years ago, and in its early years was principally involved in calibrating, repairing and testing equipment such as boiler pressure gauges in jute mills.

It branched out into lift engineering in 1985 when, after working with a contact in the industry, its founder realised the lift sector best suited his passion for precision engineering.

In 2011, Caltech supplied two lifts as props for the set of Cloud Atlas, the film starring Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and Tom Hanks, when a scene was filmed at Overtoun House, Dunbartonshire.

Its biggest deal to date came in 2003, when it landed a £200,000 contract to supply lifts to the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.