BOSSES at an historic Bolton manufacturer are celebrating securing a £7.2million government contract - just months after being bought out of administration.

Ninety jobs were saved when Nelson Street based safety door maker Booth Industries was acquired by Metalcraft in June.

And now the turnaround in their fortunes, which saw the 146-year-old firm become part of the Avingtrans Group, has been further boosted by the Whitehall deal.

Management says the announcement has taken the amount of business generated by the outfit to £12million, since the summer.

When the takeover was completed, while Metalcraft took control of the workforce and assets, and ditched their debt profile, they did not benefit from the existing order book.

Austen Adams, managing director of the Avingtrans division which incorporates Booth, said: "This is fantastic news for the team at Booth Industries.

"When we acquired the trade and certain assets of the business earlier this year, we were excited by its potential, given similarities to other businesses within our division and the opportunity to enhance our offer to a range of existing and potential customers.

"Securing these contracts supports that judgement and, as home to a number of great British engineering brands, we remain confident in our abilities to restore Booth Industries to a clear leadership position in its chosen niche markets."

Blast doors and safety doors, alongside prefabricated fire and blast wall systems, for industries including offshore oil and gas platforms, marine, rail and infrastructure, tunnels and mining, security and counter terrorism, aviation and nuclear.

Steve McQuillan, the group's chief executive, added: "The team at Booth Industries has got off to a promising start, clearly justifying our decision to invest in the business.

"Avingtrans has a strong track record of identifying underperforming businesses in highly-regulated engineering markets and investing in them to turn the underlying business around, via our PIE model (Pinpoint-Invest-Exit)

" As the Booth acquisition shows, it’s an approach that continues to deliver significant shareholder value while securing the future of traditional UK engineering businesses and retaining essential skills in the economy."