Protective clothing specialist Bristol Uniforms has signed a deal with Lloyds which means it can carry on with its expansion plans.

The Staple Hill firm recently signed a deal to make the uniforms for more than 6,000 firefighters in London and has won other contracts.

In order to deliver the contract, it has negotiated new loan arrangements with the corporate team at Lloyds bank.

The company has declined to say how much the loan was for.

The firm has been making uniforms and clothes for more than 200 years and in the 1960s began producing the first specially designed protective equipment for firefighters. It currently employs 130 people in Bristol who design and manufacture uniforms for fire, police and ambulance services in over 110 countries.

The Lloyds deal will allow the business to continue its growth in the UK and also overseas markets. Joint managing director Ian Mitchell said: "We operate in a niche market requiring specific funding products and since we started talking to Lloyds TSB earlier this year, it was clear they were the right financial partners for us.

"Although Bristol Uniforms trades internationally, over half of its business is in the UK where the firm has recently won a number of high profile contracts, including an eight-year deal to supply and maintain uniforms for the London Fire Brigade's 6,000 firefighters."

Paul Allen, from Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets in Bristol, said: "Bristol Uniforms is a real South West success story. The business has become a pioneer in the field of protective clothing, helping the emergency services do their jobs safely."

The company has also agreed a contract with the MoD Fire Brigade and will be supplying equipment to 2,000 firefighters who work with the army around the world, including in Afghanistan.

Work has already started on the £16 million contract with the London Fire Brigade. It involves manufacturing two sets of head-to-toe protective clothing for each firefighter in readiness for the eight-year supply contract which begins in April 2010.

To meet the contract, the firm will open a new warehouse to allow an expansion of manufacturing at its existing Staple Hill premises.

A new managed service facility, which will create 40 new jobs, is being planned for London and will be opened in advance of personal protective equipment being issued to firefighters next year.

Other new deals include a contract to supply more than 2,000 sets of fire coats and trousers to the civil defence forces in Saudi Arabia.

Areas into which Bristol has expanded over the past 12 months include the Balkan states, Scandinavia, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal as well as other Gulf states and a number of Pacific Rim countries.