A FAMILY firm has been given the "thumbs up" to create 160 new jobs in Bury.

Plasticware manufacturers Thumbs Up (Bury) Ltd are to forge ahead with a £4.8 million invest programme at its storage and distribution centre in Dumers Lane.

Between 120 and 160 full time jobs will be created once a huge warehouse and office complex is built. It should be up and running by Christmas.

Thumbs Up currently employs 200 people from around the borough. It has already splashed out £3 million upgrading its production plant at Bury Bridge.

The new investment involves the creation of a 173,000 sq ft warehouse off Dumers Lane to help cope with increase national and international demand for the firm's plastic household and garden products. While celebrating Bury Council's planning committee approval of the scheme, Thumbs Up owner and managing director Mr John McGuinness told how a rejection of the expansion project would have forced the company to quit Bury.

Mr McGuinness said: "If the planning committee refused this plan we would have had no alternative but to move the storage and production plant out of the borough.

"Employees were very anxious before the decision but it certainly was a relief to see their faces after we got planning permission."

With an annual £20 million turnover, Thumbs Up supplies some of the country's leading stores, including Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's, and export to America, Germany and France among others. One million plastic items are made by the firm every week.

Mr McGuinness runs Thumbs Up with his two sons Darren and Richard.

He said: "This investment is great news for our staff, for Bury and its residents. The borough has been hit badly by firms closing or moving away and employment prospects have been bleak. Until now.

"The huge demand for our products worldwide has prompted this investment."

Full architectural plans must now be submitted before building work takes place and the recruitment of office and warehouse workers will begin later this year.

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