Staff at Thomas Smith Fasteners, which relocated to a unit off Swan Lane in Hindley Green two years ago, were stunned when they arrived to work on Friday morning to find large skip and its contents gone.


Thieves had broken into the premises through the front gate using bolt-cutters and made off with a large front-loading skip worth around £1,500 and around seven tons of scrap metal inside it worth approximately £2,000.


Manager Gary Stevens, 31, said: "We're just flabbergasted – everything is locked up at night and nobody imagined something like this could happen.
"The company has been going for about 100 years but this is the first criminal activity like this that we can remember. The price of scrap metal has gone up so much.


"It must have been somebody who knew what they were doing because they must have come down in a skip wagon to lift the skip – it's obviously premeditated.
"We think it must have happened some time after midnight because that's when the gym across the road closes."


The company, which manufactures nuts and bolts, used to supply celebrity TV steeplejack Fred Dibnah and they are one of the few companies around making fasteners in imperial sizes. They are one of the biggest companies of their kind in the UK.
The crime has been reported to Greater Manchester Police who have launched an investigation.


Anyone with information can call the police on 0161 8725050 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.