A Leeds business is celebrating after being named Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) of the Month by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

Digital Chemistry, based on the Harewood House Estate, was chosen for the work it does producing innovative scientific software - mainly for pharmaceutical research.

Managing Director Dr Julian Hayward said: "Digital Chemistry is proud to be the Royal Society of Chemistry's SME of the Month for September. 

"Establishing a new company in the marketplace is time consuming and costly for small companies, and exposure of this kind can be invaluable for SMEs like us that are trying to build relationships within the pharmaceutical and chemical industry."

The company has 11 full time employees, of which seven are chemists. It started in 2005 when the directors of the company Barnard Chemical Information (BCI) spotted a gap in the market for offering off the shelf software.

The four then directors of BCI (John Barnard, Geoff Downs, Matthew Wright and Tony Cook) joined with new managing director Dr Hayward to set up the new company.

It has since grown based on sales and consultancy work without the need for external funding - thanks largely to the word of mouth built up through the BCI company name.

Specialist sales and marking and technical support managers were appointed late in 2005, and a new website was set up in March 2006, to further boost the company profile. They also use traditional advertising mediums and conferences to showcase their products.

The news means it is the second month in a row the SME accolade has gone to a Yorkshire business, with York based Bioniqs having been named August's SME of the Month.

Dr Hayward said: ""Digital Chemistry is very supportive of the RSC and their initiatives to help smaller enterprises, such as the SME of the month scheme, but also through training opportunities, by building local and scientific networks and by being a strong voice for the SME community as a whole." 

Digital Chemistry has a bright outlook for the future, and plans to launch its new Torus product later in the year.

Torus software offers very rapid searching of vast numbers of chemical structures, to identify potentially interesting molecules in a virtual environment, thus limiting the need for chemical experimentation. Torus will be of interest to scientists using large chemical databases and also lends itself to easing significant bottlenecks in the searching of chemical patents. 

Expansion plans could mean an office move within the next 18 months, and the need for localised sales support abroad could mean a US office opening in the near future.

Melanie Washington, the RSC's industry specialist, said: "The chemical industry in Yorkshire is booming and we are delighted to recognise the contribution made by Digital Chemistry.

"The chemical industry is not just about manufacturing, but also the technology and software which is vital to its success."