A NEW centre to help East Lancashire firms break into new markets has opened its doors.

The Lancashire Centre for Marketing Excellence, based at the Globe centre in Accrington, aims to provide specialist help to small and medium sized companies.

The venture is an initiative between Enterprise plc, Royal Mail and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

"Marketing is crucial to the success of all businesses," said Councillor Frank McKenna , deputy leader of Lancashire County Council.

"Smaller companies however simply do not have the resources to employ their own marketing specialists.

"By establishing the centre we are providing businesses with a level of expertise that is generally only available to much larger companies."

A range of subsidised marketing services is available through the centre including help with promotional campaigns and marketing reviews.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.