Shadow Treasury minister Mark Hoban has visited Bath's biggest manufacturing firm to find out the secret of its success.

The Tory frontbencher was joined by the party's Bath Parliamentary hopeful Fabian Richter on a tour of engineering firm Rotork at Brassmill Lane.

The company, set up in 1957 by David Fry and developed by his inspirational businessman brother Jeremy, has ridden the recession well and employs more than 250 people in Bath.

It is the world's leading designer and manufacturer of valve actuators - giant taps which that control the movement of liquids and gases in the fuel, energy, and water industries - and is the firm where vacuum cleaner pioneer Sir James Dyson started his career.

Mr Hoban said: "Companies like Rotork point the way to how we need to rebalance Britain's economy.

"Successful continuous investment has made Rotork one of the UK's most significant hi-tech exporters."

He said the Conservatives' recently-published Economic Manifesto recognised the need to encourage more companies such as Rotork to expand."

Mr Richter said he was keen to find out how a future Conservative government could help businesses such as Rotork.

"We do not properly celebrate engineering and hi-tech businesses which have succeeded in becoming world leaders in their field. That is why I wanted Mark to visit Bath."

The firm's chief executive Peter France said investment in people and in research were the keys to its success.

"We firmly believe that high value-added specialist engineering businesses like Rotork have a key role to play in Britain's economic future. At Rotork, our people are the fundamental reason for our success.

"We strive for constant improvement throughout our business and we aim to provide the best products for our customers, which requires a culture of innovation.

"Like other engineering companies, investment into research and development is a key part of our business model and allows us to excel in what is an increasingly global marketplace."

Meanwhile, the firm has just supplied electric actuators for a project to upgrade Bath-based Wessex Water's sewage treatment works at Swanage in Dorset.

The works have to be capable of coping with a doubling of the resort's 10,000 population in the summer when holiday parks are packed with visitors.