headquarters_location textile machinery makers ltd
___MASK4___ is a town in Greater ___MASK29___ , England , amid the Pennines between the rivers Irk and Medlock , south - southeast of Rochdale and northeast of ___MASK29___ . Together with several smaller surrounding towns , it is part of the Metropolitan Borough of ___MASK4___ , of which it is the administrative centre . North West ___MASK16___ , one of nine official regions of ___MASK16___ , consists of the five counties of Cheshire , Cumbria , Greater ___MASK29___ , Lancashire and Merseyside . The North West had a population of 7 , 052 , 000 in 2011 . It is the third most populated region in the United Kingdom after the South East and Greater London . Platt Brothers , also known as Platt Bros & Co Ltd , was a British company based at Werneth in ___MASK4___ , North West ___MASK16___ . The company manufactured textile machinery and were iron founders and colliery proprietors . By the end of the 19th century , the company had become the largest textile machinery manufacturer in the world , employing more than 12 , 000 workers . In the recession of the 1930s , Platt Brothers , Howard and Bullough , Brooks and Doxey , Asa Lees , Dobson and Barlow , Joseph Hibbert , John Hetherington and Tweedales and Smalley merged to become Textile Machinery Makers Ltd . , but the individual units continued to trade under their own names until the 1970 , when they were rationalised into one company called Platt UK Ltd . In 1991 the company name changed to Platt Saco Lowell . The Globe works closed in 1993 . Asa Lees was a firm of textile machine manufacturers in ___MASK4___ , ___MASK27___ . Their headquarters was the Soho Iron Works , Greenacres . It was second only in size to Platt Brothers .