AN EAST Anglian businessman’s focus on new cutting-edge technology has paid off with his company scooping a contract to supply electronic signs for the Olympics.

AN EAST Anglian businessman’s focus on new cutting-edge technology has paid off with his company scooping a contract to supply electronic signs for the Olympics.

Mervyn Lambert Plant Ltd in Garboldisham, near Diss, has secured a contract with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to supply the Variable Message Signs (VMS), worth �45,000 each, which will be used to control traffic on the routes leading to the Olympic Park at Stratford in east London.

The company, which started its own traffic management department in 2007, will also be providing an electronic information board for drivers ferrying athletes around the Olympic village.

The signs, which can be pre-loaded with up to 4,000 different messages, will be operated and controlled by staff at the company’s Garboldisham headquarters during the Olympics and Paralympics this summer.

Mervyn Lambert, who founded the plant hire company in 1969, said he was proud to be involved in the “prestigious” event and they had had to jump through a lot of hoops to secure an Olympic contract.

Mr Lambert began his plant hire business in 1969 in Garboldisham after buying a second-hand digger and the firm has grown to almost 200 employees with a turnover of more than �1million a month and more than 2,000 plant hire items. The firm has recruited 12 new staff in the last few weeks to keep up with the workload.

He added that he was hopeful of securing another contract with the London Olympics organisers to provide more signage for the games.