RADCLIFFE-based Trumeter Co Ltd has bought the worldwide manufacturing and marketing rights to a patented new range of spirit levels.

Trumeter has sub-contracted manufacture to Peter Miles Engineering Ltd of Leigh which has acquired an additional factory in Atherton and created an initial 35 new jobs.

There is the prospect of a second shift being added next year.

Initial production is reserved for export to Germany and the USA is then expected to be the major market.

Trumeter managing director Peter Weidenbaum said: "We are applying our international marketing expertise to this product range which complements our present ranges of tools and measuring wheels and is sold through the same distributors."

He went on: "The USA is already our major export market.

"We have a rapidly-expanding Trumeter operation based in Florida and we expect the DIY superstore chains to be the main outlets for the new spirit levels."

Mr Weidenbaum, who is vice-chairman of Bolton and Bury Chamber, added: "Our Radcliffe factory, which also manufactures mechanical and electronic instruments, as well as the measuring wheels, could not accommodate another complete production line -- hence our decision to sub-contract to a company with proven metalworking skills and a successful track record of sub-contracting."

The new spirit level, known as the Tru-Level Master, has an angled profile with spirit vials at each end on both sides, or six vials on larger models.

It can be used to check levels in two planes at once -- vertical and horizontal.