AROUND 150 new jobs are to be created at a plastic household and gardenware company as part of a £10m expansion.

Thumbs Up (Bury) Ltd is spending around £7.5 million on a new 185,000 sq ft distribution centre and warehouse building at its Greenfields site in Dumers Lane. The new jobs will be required to staff the centre, scheduled for completion in May.

An additional £2.5 million will fund the cost of seven new high-speed production machines at the company's manufacturing unit at Bury Bridge Trading Estate. The twin investments more than re-inforces the family firm's commitment to maintain its roots in the town.

Chief executive Mr John McGuinness said: "Unlike other firms, we're not moving our manufacturing to Malaysia or elsewhere abroad. We do have an existing warehouse but we needed more space. This new centre will be 13.8 metres high and will hold approximately 17,500 pallets. We manufacture 900,000 pieces of merchandise each week."

Thumbs Up, whose clients include supermarket giants ASDA and Morrison's, also enjoys buoyant overseas sales. Ten per cent of its output is exported abroad, and the figure is increasing.

"We export to Europe and as far away as New Zealand," said Mr McGuinness, "We've achieved this despite all the reports about how the strong pound is hampering other companies."

Thumbs Up, launched in Bury in 1979, has also been awarded the biggest single ever grant under the borough's Business Investment Programme (BIP), run jointly by Bury Council and Groundwork Bury, of which the company is a patron. The £50,000 will go towards the costs of ground reinstatement. The company employs a 220-strong workforce, 98 at its manufacturing unit, with the remainder based at Dumers Lane