A DARWEN aerospace firm has won long-term contracts worth £30million which are expected to create up to 50 jobs.

And bosses at Brookhouse Holdings Limited -- made up of Brookhouse Composites Ltd and Brookhouse Tooling Ltd at India Mill -- announced that the majority of the jobs would be in Darwen.

The company, which also has sites in Manchester and Huntingdon, has secured contracts with four blue-chip aerospace-related companies in the North West, South West and the Midlands during the next few years.

It has already begun recruiting for a wide range of positions including laboratory technicians, engineering and project engineers, designers and clean room operatives.

Chief executive of Brookhouse Holdings Ltd, Richard Thornley, today said he hoped the contracts were just the beginning.

He said: "We have won four main contracts but there are more in the pipeline that we are currently negotiating.

"We hope to hear whether we have been successful with those within the next six months but we are cautiously optimistic. If we have been, this could mean further jobs for the area.

"The programmes we have won are a mixture of civil and military contracts and the ones we are looking at winning are predominantly on the new Airbus which is currently being developed.

"We do not intend to do all the work ourselves. We will be engaging with local suppliers and a couple of international suppliers who we have formed a working alliance with.

"We have also won contracts from overseas and are trying to build up the export side of the business to Europe and the Far East."

There are around 260 people employed across the two Darwen sites.

The company has previously secured high-profile contracts to manufacture the carbon fibre body for the Jordan F1 car, the Thrust SSC world land speed record-breaking car and a new luxury car by James Bond car-makers Aston Martin.