PIZZA manufacturer Stateside Foods is set to create at least 35 new jobs on the Wingates industrial estate in Westhoughton.

They will be needed when the company opens a new £1.5 million distribution centre in March 2003 as part of a multi-million pound investment programme.

The 2,000 extra pallet bays in the 25,000 sq ft building will provide extra space for production and distribution of the company's Italian stone baked and American deep crust pizzas.

Stateside Foods makes more than 60 million chilled pre-packed pizzas every year, supplying Asda, Safeway, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons and Somerfield.

The company, which was established in 1991, also exports pizza bases to 15 European countries. Stateside is a privately-owned company with an annual turnover of £40 million which currently employs 587 people in Westhoughton. There are additional sites in Skelmersdale and Haslingden.

Managing director Jon Lucas said today: "The new facility at our Westhoughton site is part of a long-term programme of reinvestment.

"The business has achieved consistent growth over the last 11 years and we are now one of the biggest pizza manufacturers in the UK.

"We want to keep it that way and this new facility will provide the supply chain capability to help us do that."

Stateside, which started in the Midlands, bought the former Fiesta Fine Foods company in Wingates in 1995.