NEWPORT-based firm Tellermate, the fastest-growing cash management company in the world, is moving into new headquarters outside the city.

A week tomorrow there will be a double celebration at the new HQ and training centre at Melrose Hall, St Mellons.

At the same time, the company will be officially presented with its latest Queen's Award - for international trade.

The presentation will be made by Lord Lieutenant Simon Boyle, and speakers will include First Minister Rhodri Morgan.

As previously reported, this is Tellermate's fourth Queen's Award in six years - in 1996 for export achievement and 1997 for both export and technological achievement.

The company, founded by Monmouth businessman Edgar Biss, improves the productivity and security of businesses that handle banknotes and coins, such as banks, supermarkets, restaurants, petrol stations, department stores, cinemas, leisure centres, and corner shops.

A Tellermate customer is any business that depends on cash transactions.

In shops and stores, the company helps managers and cashiers to validate the takings for each cash register and prepare the bank deposit, completing all the paperwork and feeding reports into the store computer.

As a result, managers gain an extra hour every day to increase sales and improve security and customer service.

In banks, Tellermate shortens waiting-times for customers and increases the productivity of cashiers, both in the front office and the back office.

In 2000, in preparation for the arrival of the euro, Tellermate created a European headquarters in Paris, with other offices in France, Germany and Spain.

The investment paid off and sales to Europe grew by 250% in 2001, fuelled by substantial contracts with the Belgian Post Office, Credit Agricole and Galleries Lafayette in France, and German stores groups Lidl and Rewe.

The recent sales growth was crowned by orders to equip Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, with networked cash management solutions for its entire North American store chain.

Africa is a developing market for Tellermate and will feature in future growth plans. In 2001 the company broke new ground by automating the regional cash centres of First National Bank.

Asia is a more difficult market to conquer, but Tellermate KK has been created, a company based in Tokyo.

This global expansion has been led by a small team in Newport. Regional sales companies are based in Atlanta (Georgia), Paris and Johannesburg, and an office in Tokyo has just been opened.

A company spokesman said: "We will increase penetration of existing markets and enter new markets. We will achieve this by extending our existing product line and by developing new products.

"The foundation of our business will shift - from being an equipment supplier we will evolve into an end-to-end systems supplier, providing a wide portfolio of products and services to meet all the cash-management needs of our customers.

"This will mean greater emphasis on consultancy and training."

Tellermate employs 85 people in Newport and a further 50 overseas. Around 300 jobs are supported with sub-contractors in Wales.

Melrose Hall is a 19th-century house flanked by two sympathetically styled office blocks, while the Newport site on the Leeway estate is being refurbished to provide more space for engineering and to improve all aspects of product delivery.