STOCKLEYS, one of Hyndburn's oldest companies, has been bought in what its new owners described as a 'sweet' deal.

The firm - famous for its traditional toffees, as well as sarsaparilla tablets, coltsfoot rock, humbugs and pear drops - has been taken over in a "six-figure deal" by Mr Lucky Bags.

The Stockleys factory and visitor centre at Oswaldtwistle Mill, which employs 30 people, will remain open and the new owners have promised a big marketing push for the sweets.

Kath Lawson will remain general manager after selling to the Mr Lucky Bags Group, based in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

"We are delighted to be part of the Mr Lucky Bags family," she said. "The extra resource and skills will secure the future of Stockleys Sweets and widen our market substantially."

The buyers are the largest producers of 'lucky bags' in Europe and export the kids' favourites throughout the world. Managing director, Robert Cawley, said: "Stockleys Sweets is a great fit with Mr Lucky Bags as there is a thread of nostalgia that runs through our businesses.

"Using modern marketing and design alongside traditional values works very well for us. There is a real trend towards the good old days."

Stockleys was formed in 1918 when Malcolm Stockley returned from the First World War to his native Accrington to pick up his former craft - toffee-making. It was from these humble beginnings in a shed in High Street, Rileys Hill, the name Stockleys first became recognised as a quality sweet manufacturer.

It progressed from market stalls to retail stands at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and from England to America, where Stockleys proudly exhibited their goods at the 1939 World Exhibition in San Francisco.