AN Italian company has taken on 60 workers and reopened a manufacturing site that closed last year.

PMT Italia, based in Pinerolo, near Turin, has bought the former Sandusky Walmsley paper machinery manufacturing complex in Crompton Way, Bolton.

Production at the site, now called PMT Industries, restarted on January 2, and the first machine off the line, a Yankee paper dryer, will leave the factory early next month.

The value of the acquisition was not disclosed, but it is understood to be a multi-million pound sum.

Daniela Pittavino, a PMT Italia spokesman, said: "We have acquired all the assets relating to the production of Yankee Dryers, MG Cylinders and castings in general, including patterns, as well as the rights to certain assets of Sandusky Technologies, including drawings, bills of material, and other technical and commercial documentation.

"We acquired the business shortly before Christmas, and started production with 60 staff. We are lucky because the workforce in Bolton comprises people with specific experience and know-how derived from the long tradition of this plant as a world-class leader in the manufacture of Yankee Cylinders."

Ms Pittavino said the acquisition would further consolidate PMT Italia's product line for tissue machines and paper machines, as well as establishing a facility to better serve its customers on a global basis.

She added that there were no further recruitment plans but that expansion later in the year had the "potential"

for further job creation. Cllr Akhtar Zaman, Bolton Council's executive member for regeneration, said: "This is great news for the town. I am delighted for all of those skilled people who have managed to secure themselves employment.

"It is also illustrates that the skills we have in Bolton are recognised internationally."

Sandusky Walmsley went into administration in August last year and closed in October with the loss of 305 jobs.

PMT Italia, itself now a paper machinery manufacturer, was originally formed as a foundry in 1896.

It was bought by the US group Beloit in 1957, which also bought the Crompton Way operation, creating Beloit Walmlsley in 1976. It became indepenently-owned in 2000. Its site in Italy, which employs 300 workers, exports machinery worldwide.