A WASTE management firm is boosting its 350-strong workforce in the region after a number of major contract wins.

Durham-based Premier Waste Management is creating 20 jobs in Washington, Wearside, after a multi-million pound investment in a commercial recycling and recovery facility.

The final piece of machinery was installed on site before Christmas, completing the first phase of Premier's development in Washington.

The facility, at Monument Chip company profits drop MICROCHIP maker Filtronic last night said it had scraped a profit of £900,000 in the six months to November 30, compared with £75.8m last year.

The west Yorkshire-based technologies group, which is selling its Newton Aycliffe foundry, warned it expected trading to be even worse in the second half of the year.

The company also said it was considering the closure of its final salary pension scheme.

The company is selling its lossmaking compound semiconductors business, in Newton Aycliffe, for £12.5m to US wireless technology company RF Micro Devices.

It has sold the foundry on condition RF keep the site in Newton Aycliffe for at least three years, safeguarding the short-term future of the workforce.

CRUMPETS FOR TEA: General manager Michael Fallon examines the crumpet production line at Warburtons' Stockton bakery.

Baker aims to hit crumpets target FAMILY-run bakery business Warburtons is on target to turn out more than one million crumpets a week at its Stockton factory - a month after opening a £2m crumpet plant at the site.

Its Yarm Road bakery produces crumpets six days a week for supermarkets and independent stores in the North, employing 187 people.

Warburtons acquired the site from collapsed firm Rathbones in 2005 and spent £6.5m refitting it before its reopening in 2006. A further investment saw the crumpet plant open at the end of last year.

General manager Michael Fallon said: "It's amazing to go from zero crumpets to one million in only a month.

"We have exceeded expectations and that's down to the skills and commitment of all the people who work here."

He said Teessiders were particularly keen on crumpets, getting through 76,000 packs - or nearly half a million crumpets - last month.

The crumpet production line in Stockton is on target for full production by the end of the month, when it will hit the one million crumpets a week mark.

The Stockton plant also produces loaves, rolls and fruit bread. The company has another site in the North-East, at Newburn, in Newcastle.

The sites are part of a group of 13 bakeries and 12 depots around the country, producing more than two million products a day.

Now the UK's leading independent baker, Warburtons was established in a grocery shop in Bolton by Thomas and Ellen Warburton, in 1876.

Today, the business is run by the fifth generation of the Warburton family, including chairman Jonathan Warburton, whose voice can be heard in the firm's TV ads.

By Julia Breen Business Editor julia.breen@nne.co.uk Park, will take commercial waste and extract cardboard, paper, plastics, wood and metal for recycling.

It enables Premier, which turned over £36m last year, to process and pre-treat waste for its commercial customers in the region following an EU directive introduced in October.

Malcolm Johnson, treatment director at Premier, said: "The site represents an opportunity for Premier to maximise recycling in our region.

"Initial testing of the machinery has indicated that as much as 50 per cent of all waste delivered to the facility will be diverted from landfill and recycled."

Premier handles commercial waste from Sunderland Football Club, The Sage Gateshead, and the MetroCentre among others.

The company launched its commercial waste operation in 2002 and has grown into the region's largest industrial waste collector. It is a registered company, part-owned by Durham County Council and Darlington Borough Council and has more than 40 sites in the North-East, recovering, recycling and processing more than one million tonnes of waste each year.

Last year, Premier opened a bio-processing plant at its Thornley site, in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, to offer an alternative to incineration in disposing of domestic waste.

The Premier Advanced Recycling Centre (Parc) is an integrated system, which uses rapid bio-processing technology to process solid waste.

It can separate metal, glass and plastics for recycling, and turn biodegradable materials into compost, without the materials having to be pre-sorted.

It diverts up to 85 per cent of the waste processed from landfill sites, and releases less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Parc is dealing with on 62,000 tonnes of County Durham's household waste.