SHE liked it so much, she bought the company -- well, part of it.

A Bolton woman has bought part of the company she joined as an apprentice more than 25 years ago in a major buy out deal.

Andrea Hough, from Lostock, bought VT Engine Controls, part of the giant support services and shipbuilding group, VT Group Plc, with her business partner Terry Madden, in a deal three weeks ago.

Based in a 22,000 sq ft site on the Wardley Industrial Estate in Swinton, the new company, AT Engine Controls, has 60 staff with 10 support staff based in the Portsmouth Naval Base.

It designs and manufactures the Gnome and T55 helicopter engine control systems.

The company has contracts directly from the Ministry of Defence and other overseas governments, or indirectly by subcontract from engine-makers such as Rolls-Royce.

"VT Group PLC was looking to dispose of some of its non core manufacturing operations," said Andrea, "so we were in negotiations for seven or eight months and the deal was finally signed on August 9."

Andrea joined former aerospace giant Hawker Siddeley at its base on Gladstone Road, Farnworth, as a 16-year-old commercial apprentice, straight from Mount St Joseph school in 1978.

She stayed with the company through a management buyout in the early 1990s and again through the sale of the company to Vosper Thornycroft in 1995, ending up as operations manager for the manufacturing and IT part of the operation.

Dividing her time between Bolton and Portsmouth, Andrea said that the company would now be looking to expand its aerospace business with other legacy products.

"There are lots of successful legacy products within the aero industry that we will be looking at, with a view to managing them on our customers' behalf or acquiring them if necessary," she said.