A HEYWOOD engineering company has a new American owner. P & M Vacuum Services Ltd, which is based on the Pennine Business Park in Pilsworth Road, has been acquired by the Chicago-based Tuthill Corporation. P & M has merged with a Tuthill subsidiary - Kinney Vacuum - and becomes Tuthill Vacuum Systems (Europe), reporting to Mr James A. Elsner, President of the Tuthill Corporation/Vacuum Systems Group.
Mr Peter Whitnall, immediate past president of the Bolton-based Engineering Employers' Federation, continues as managing director at the business he helped to found.
He said: "The Heywood factory is to be the European manufacturing and distribution facility for Tuthill Vacuum Systems, manufacturing and assembling pumps for the European market and creating new jobs in the engineering sector."
He paid tribute to the "hard work and dedication" of the P & M workforce.
P & M Vacuum Services Ltd was established in 1986 by Mr Whitnall and Mr Michael Byrne primarily to service and repair vacuum pumps and systems.
Tools and equipment were bought from their previous employer, General Engineering Ltd at Radcliffe, a world-wide supplier of vacuum systems which closed in 1986.
Mr Whitnall, who went to Derby Grammar School, Bury, served his apprenticeship at Walmsleys (Bury) Ltd.
P & M started its Heywood operation in 1989 and has continued to develop ever since.
It acted for several years before the merger as the UK distributor for Kinney Vacuum Pumps and has long experience of the manufacturing process involved.
Kinney Vacuum is a division of Tuthill Corporation and a member of the Tuthill Vacuum Systems Group.
The division is a world leader in the design, manufacture and application of industrial vacuum pumps for use in a wide range of industries including chemical processing, heat treating, meat and food processing, packaging, automotive and electrical.
The Division is based in Canton, Massachusetts and has sales and service facilities throughout the world.
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