US PAPER industry giant Domtar has paid £150m to buy out the Tyneside-led company which had grown into one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of incontinence pads.

The American company said it hopes to double profits at Attends Healthcare within five years as it announced the massive deal for a firm, which had been grown out of the North East operations of Procter & Gamble over the last decade.

Attends may be a giant in its field and employ more than 400 workers at its 374,000sq ft factory in Sweden and distribution depots in Germany and Scotland, but its nerve centre is a small office in Newcastle where around a dozen people are employed running the business.

The firm, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is run by group chief executive officer James Steele as it has been since it was created.

He led the Paperpak business at P&G and continued to run the firm when it was spun out and with backing from venture capitalists 3i in 2002.

Steele grew the business considerably with his Newcastle management team, largely former P&G executives, and was involved in a £63.4m management buy-out of its European operations in 2007.