A COMPANY taken over by an East Lancashire firm while in administration is now hiring again and winning big contracts.

Darwen’s WEC Group bought out metal manufacturing specialist MTL Advanced in February, bringing the company out of the threat of closure.

WEC Group, one of the UK’s largest engineering and fabrication companies, funded the deal to acquire the business and some of the South Yorkshire firm’s assets, saving 135 jobs.

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MTL has now traded profitably in each of the last three months compared to month-on-month losses in the previous 12 months.

The company has also won back a £3 million defence contract which it lost when it went into administration in February.

Wayne Wild, commercial director of WEC Group, said: “We were delighted to win back the a major order that had gone away following administration and the investment programme we have announced will make MTL an even stronger operation. We have potentially got some very large contracts in the pipeline.”

WEC Group also announced that it is creating an apprenticeship scheme at the company which will mirror its award-winning training academy in Lancashire.

And a major £1 million programme of investment in new equipment for MTL’s Rotherham facility is about to get underway.

Mr Wild added: “We’re currently looking for our first intake of six apprentices and the £1 million investment programme will see the installation of a new large bed laser cutting machine and a wet painting line at the Rotherham factory.”

The partnership deal was completed in just three weeks and has created one of the largest laser cutting operations in the UK’s fabrication and engineering sector.

The addition of MTL Advanced has more than doubled WEC’s engineering capacity and it now has more than 600 staff working across eight sites in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Merseyside.