£81m cash bonanza for local firms

TWO Oldham companies are among 18 North-West businesses nominated to share in an £81 million regional growth fund distribution.

Manchester-based internet and catalogue home-shopping firm N Brown Group plc, which has a distribution centre in Shaw, and engineering and plastics company Patterson and Rothwell Limited, based at Mount Pleasant Industrial Estate, are in the candidate list.

The N Brown Group led a private-sector bid for funding on behalf of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire to drive investment in textile manufacturing.

The money will help to create entry-level, unskilled jobs in impoverished communities.

Lee Tilley and Alan Rothwell, directors of Patterson & Rothwell, said: “This is very good news for us. We are going to use the funding to create new jobs and safeguard existing ones in Oldham.

“We will be able to expand into new markets by exporting our products to Europe, Australia and America and to improve our equipment making it more energy-efficient.”

The firm employs 140 staff and has been in business for 30 years.