A cold and wet spring has helped a family-run drysuit business to expand to meet rising demand for its products and repair work.

Hammond Drysuits, based in Dartford, has grown its manufacturing facility and taken on extra staff.

The Met Office reported the coldest spring in more than 50 years, prompting further business growth as users need to wear their drysuits for longer.

The company has also revealed a new logo and branding which will feature across all new products delivered to both leisure and commercial sectors.

Hammond was founded 34 years ago, and serves a wide range of major clients, including Musto, Gill and Bare in the leisure marine market, and E.ON Climate and Renewables, the Environment Agency and London Metropolitan Police in the commercial marine market.

The firm offers made-to-measure and off-the-peg drysuits for scuba diving, sailing, water-skiing, wakeboarding, kite surfing, jet-skiing, kayaking. It also supplies drysuits for the Port of London Authority, Kent Fire & Rescue, Kent Police, Caister Lifeboat, Dawson Energy, and a number of wind farm equipment companies.

It also repairs drysuits for Musto and Gill, E.ON Climate & Renewables, the Metropolitan Police, Environment Agency, Wiltshire Fire & Rescue and various RNLI stations. Hammond Drysuits is the recommended repair centre for Ocean Rodeo and Ursuit, and is now the UK repair centre for Bare.

Owner and managing director Chris Hammond said: “We are pleased to have completed our integrated expansion programme, which has enabled us to significantly increase our capacity to service new and existing customers in both the leisure and commercial sectors. “Customers have always chosen Hammond Drysuits for our high quality British standards and customer care; now with our new-look branding carrying us forward, we are looking forward to building on that for the future.”