A RADCLIFFE company has bucked the downturn in the paper industry by acquiring a former Bury business for an undisclosed sum.

And bosses at paper, board and converting machinery firm Warburton Holgate are confident the move will boost their annual turnover by £3 million.

The Milltown Street-based company has acquired Simon Holder, which was located in Bury for 30 years before being transferred to Cheadle Hulme early last year.

The acquisition brings Warburton Holgate's staffing up to 90, including the 23 personnel from Simon Holder which is involved in the design of paper making equipment and complete paper mills.

Both teams will be consolidated on the Warburton Holgate site in Radcliffe and will offer an extended product range to the pulp and paper industry.

The acquisition takes place amid a considerable downturn over the last two to three years in the paper industry, which has been other major suppliers collapse.

Mr Alec Littlewood, managing director, said: "Ironically, the paper industry has gone through terrible times recently, although things have just started to pick up a little.

"The acquisition provides us with a wonderful opportunity to extend our product range and to ensure we don't get peaks and troughs." He said the move would provide a boost within the manufacturing side of the business as opposed to the contractual side.

Mr Littlewood added: "Simon Holder became available because of the downturn in the paper industry."

Because Simon Holder has an enviable track record of overseas work, he is hopeful Warburton Holgate Ltd - as the new company is now known - will capture foreign contracts.

"We hope to increase our business from a £7 million to a £10 million operation, including as much overseas business as possible while the strength of the pound continues to ruin the paper industry."

Commenting on the acquisition, he continued: "This is a tremendous opportunity for us to recover from poor trading conditions experienced over the last few years.

"The strength of sterling has led to cheap European imports of paper and board, resulting in difficult times for the mills with the consequence of reduced capital spend.

"Additionally, imported machines have been cheaper and to counteract both these threats, greater efficiency and savings have had to be made by suppliers in order not only to remain competitive, but also to improve market share.

"We are confident the combined operations will enable this to be achieved," stressed Mr Littlewood.

Warburton Holgate is only one of a handful of companies in the UK paper machinery manufacturing industry with in-house manufacturing facilities.

The original Holder company, known as Holder Pamac, traded from its base in Brandlesholme Road, Bury, and was acquired by the Simon Group in the early 1990s.

However, last year the premises closed and the workforce transferred to the Simon Carves office in Cheadle Hulme.

But the move proved difficult from the start because the majority of the personnel living in the Bury area faced a difficult cross-city journey twice a day.

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