A KITCHEN and bedroom manufacturer has invested £500,000 to buy and renovate a former packaging company.

J & J Ormerod has signed the contract to complete the deal and take over the whole of the former Valley Supply Company of Stacksteads. The premises have been renamed Farholme Mill as an extension of the company's nearby Olive Mill, off Newchurch Road, Bacup.

Valley Supply closed earlier this year after attempts failed to find a buyer for the business as a going concern. But a third of the company's 30-strong workforce, still employed when it closed, have already been taken on by J & J Ormerod.

Finance director Stephen Greenhalgh said: "Ten of the 15 new employees we have taken on are former Valley Supply staff.

"This week we began manufacturing cardboard boxes back on the site again, which means the mill is still being used for the same purpose it has been for the last 70 years.

"But unlike Valley Supply we will only be making cardboard boxes for our own use, not to be sold commercially.

"Obviously if we need to increase our workforce, we will consider former employees of Valley Supply."

J & J Ormerod now employs 380 people, most from the Rossendale area. The company has an annual turnover of £22million but this year Mr Greenhalgh said he hoped it would have increased to £25million.

He said: "We are consolidating the business we have already and trying to develop our role as an appliance distributor as well as a kitchen and bedroom manufacturer."