WESTBURY seating manufacturer Audience Systems has won a major contract worth more than £1million to supply seating for the massive new King Abdullah Sports City in Saudi Arabia.

The Sports City is a huge new development of sports facilities just outside Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with Audience Systems tasked with providing all the seats for a 10,000 seat indoor arena and 1,000 seat athletics stadium.

Currently under construction in a site which was previously just desert, the ambitious new venue is intended to help boost sports participation among Saudi citizens, as well as host national and international events.

It is another major contract for the firm, which has previously manufactured and installed seating at prestigious venues including Leeds First Direct Arena, Sheffield Motorpoint Arena and the Singapore Sports Hub.

Marketing manager at Audience Systems Nina Parmenter said: “We were up against tough international competition with some of the biggest firms in the world.

“It was a long process and involved a lot of negotiation, but we were finally told we had got it towards the end of last month. It gives us a guarantee of work over the summer and is a good start to our financial year.

“It also helps us compensate for the down turn in the market in the UK as we supply a lot of seating to schools and there is less demand for that at the moment.

“We have already started work and our engineering department is set to have a busy few months. The venue is due to open in the early autumn, so it is a tight timescale, but it’s a great project and it is perfectly achievable.”

Audience Systems, which has been operating from the West Wilts Trading Estate since 1973, has grown from a start-up with one employee to become the UK’s market leader in its sector.

Audience Systems’ products are exported to over 50 countries worldwide, but can also be seen locally at Matravers School, where Audience Systems installed the retractable seating in the school hall in 2012.