SIX hundred workers jubilant at news of a huge new contract at a Burnley company were told - things have just got even better.

Celebrations at Hurel-Dubois to mark £63 million of new work had just begun, when bosses announced another £40 million boost.

The initial contract to provide thrust reversers for Spanish aircraft manufacturer Embraer will now be completed alongside work on nose cowls - the casing on the front of aeroplanes - currently done in Northern Ireland.

Both contracts were toasted in champagne at the Hurel-Dubois factory in Bancroft Road, Burnley.

UK managing director, Tom Hughes, said: "It is excellent news."

Mr Hughes would not be drawn on new jobs. Although more engineers had been recruited it was really a question of protecting existing jobs, he said.

The V2500 project which has accounted for about 25 per cent of the work done at the factory is due to come to an end in the spring of 1999.

The new work will absorb the jobs which might otherwise have been at risk. Mr Hughes added: "We have been quite successful in the last couple of years. Eighteen months ago we were projecting out sales for 1998 at a maximum of £40 million; we are now looking at £53 million this year.''

Mr Hughes was quick to give praise to the workforce: "We have a very skilled flexible workforce. At the end of the day it is the workforce which makes all the difference from the competition.''

The new deal for manufacture of the nose cowl has also come from the Spanish company Gamesa.

Gamesa market director, Luis Perez Oliva, said his company did not regard itself as a customer but as a partner.

The new contracts will also provide a major long-term spin-off benefit for sub contractors across East Lancashire.

Stuart Grant, managing director of Cleveland Guest at Colne, said: "It is a big contract for us, providing about a third of our £5 million turnover.''

Cleveland make the machine components for the assembly of the thrust reverser, which help planes to slow down on landing.

Work on the 120 reversers has already started, with the numbers expected to increase next year.

Eventually about a quarter of the workforce at Burnley will be employed on the contract, which will help guarantee work for seven to ten years.

Hurel-Dubois boss, Jacques Dubois, the man who kept aerospace jobs in Burnley when he bought the Lucas aerospace business, almost ten years ago, was in Burnley for the celebration and announced that he would be retiring in a few months time after 52 years.

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