THE Dorset company that supplies ticketing systems to public transport systems around the world is expanding.

Parkeon Transportation is adding a manufacturing centre at Holton Heath to its existing Poole site.

It says the expansion is necessary to meet growing global demand for its system.

The new 17,500sqft facility will help Parkeon ramp up production of advanced ticketing technologies used on transport networks on every continent.

Managing director Owen Griffith said: “This investment comes at a time of significant growth for Parkeon, driven by increasing demand for our technologies in the UK, continental Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia Pacific.

“Our confidence comes from employing some of the best engineers in the world and seeing the results of their innovation day-in, day-out, in systems that improve the performance of public transport operators and make travel easier for citizens.”

The company’s retailing, ticketing, real time information, analytics and fleet management products are central to the future plans of many of the world’s public transport scheme owners and operators, the company said.

Parkeon was recently awarded the UK’s biggest rail contract since privatisation for self-service retail systems.

The company employs more than 240 people in Dorset and more than 1,000 worldwide, with facilities in mainland Europe, the USA and Australia.

Its major contracts have included a ticketing system to transform public transport in Northern Ireland, along the lines of London’s Oyster cards. In London, it upgraded the bus ticketing system operating across the operators.

In Perth, Australia, it delivered what it said was probably the most advanced ticketing system in the world, for Transperth’s 1,482 buses. The system gives passengers real time information on their phones, with airport-style departure boards and a tracking system that directs buses at an underground bus station.

The business was named Company of the Year at the Dorset Business Awards in 2016.