MANUFACTURING industry - for so long the backbone of employment in East Lancashire - has taken a real beating in the last few years.

Company collapses and the transfer of factory production lines to cheaper foreign bases have taken their toll in both traditional industries and newer high technology-based firms.

Overseas competition, particularly from the Far East, has hit shoe, textile and home decoration companies.

Consolidation among big international names has also produced casualties and worldwide downturns in, for example, the automotive which recently resulted in the closure of Burnley's Michelin plant and the loss of 450 jobs.

The truck and bus tyre making plant was the smallest of Michelin's 80 worldwide factories and just too small to be economically viable.

Of course it would be wrong to suggest that all is doom and gloom. Aerospace is a strong provider of highly skilled employment right across East Lancashire and lot of new jobs have been created, especially at the industrial parks alongside the M65, in forward thinking, new ventures. Some of them have also brought much needed white collar work to the area.

But against the general backdrop today's announcement that Haslingden-based Duralay has mergest with its biggest competitor in a £71million deal to form the world's largest underlay and carpet accessories business outside the USA is excellent news.

After a referral to the Competition Commission the firm was given the go ahead for a deal which has created a group with an annual turnover of £130million and around 70 per cent of the UK underlay market.

Instead of being left out on a limb a spokesman for the merged company says it has ensured that manufacturing remains in the UK and Haslingden is "integral to the future." We need a lot more employers to put such admirable faith in the future of East Lancashire.