A MAJOR Rolls-Royce contract led to a £300,000 investment on the Wingates Industrial Park.

APPH (Bolton) Ltd has established a new Filter Division as a result of continuing growth in its aerospace filtration business.

The Mayor of Bolton, Cllr Alan Wilkinson, unveiled a commemorative plaque at an opening ceremony attended by representatives of Rolls-Royce, BAe Systems and other customers.

APPH has won the contract to supply all the fuel and oil filters for Rolls-Royce's new Trent 500 engine which powers the latest Airbus A340-500/600.

Nearly 600 engines have been sold before the aircraft's first flight.

Mr Ian Kinnear, Rolls-Royce's Director for the Trent 500 and 900 programmes, presented the Certificate of Authority to Divisional Manager Deryk Martin and said he was delighted that the Trent 500 programme had stimulated the investment for the new facility.

Fifteen people -- transferred from the adjacent parent site -- are employed directly in design, development, manufacturing and sales.

There are 45 workers manufacturing landing gear and aircraft hydraulics at the original factory established in 1989.

The two sites are connected via a fibre optic cable link.

Mr Martin said today that the new facility continued and enhanced the company's reputation as a supplier of filtration products to the aerospace industry.

He said: "The reputation stretches back almost 70 years during which time APPH has supplied filters for almost every engine produced by Rolls-Royce and almost every aircraft produced by those companies which subsequently became BAe Systems."

APPH was formerly known as AP Precision Hydraulics, a part of the Automotive Products Group.

Expansion of the business resulted in filter production being moved in 1963 from Leamington Spa to Tippinges Road, Bolton.

The factory was destroyed by fire in 1978 and -- after a spell in temporary facilities -- the business moved to Wingates Industrial Park in 1981 in what is now the Bernstein factory.

AP was taken over by the London-based BBA Group in 1986.

When joint ventures with other automotive filtration companies ended in 1989 this side of the business was transferred away from Bolton.

Smaller premises were then required for the remaining aerospace and industrial filtration businesses which became AP Precision Hydraulics (Bolton) Ltd.

Landing gear and hydraulic system production was transferred to Bolton from a Liverpool factory in 1992.

BBA sold AP in 1996, but kept AP Precision Hydraulics, re-naming it APPH.