A MAJOR expansion programme at an engineering firm has been speeded up thanks to a £500,000 investment.

Lupton & Place, based in Burnley have entered into the unlisted share placing with investment capital group 3i.

The link up with 3i will help the acceleration of a plant expansion programme. The company is about to take delivery of the fifth in a series of precision diecasting machines from Switzerland and number six is due for commissioning in October.

The firm has traded since 1985 and now employs 135 people supplying high precision aluminium and zinc diecasting.

Sales have grown from around £2 million in1993/4 to more than £5 million in 1995/6.

Said chairman Derek Gill: "Being a family business we have spent many years building L&P into a strong and distinctive company with excellent prospects.

"These prospects are based on our commitment to investment in state of the art equipment and our people."

The Gill family will retain more than 84 per cent of the share capital.

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