Through its subsidiary Canterbury Wool Spinners, Godfrey Hirst bought the land, buildings and plant from Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, taking over at the beginning of this month.
A spokesman for Godfrey Hirst said yesterday the company had re-employed 61 people for various jobs around the plant, including restarting production of carpet yarn.
The principal job was to see how the plant performed, assess the operation and the logistics of using the plant in the future.
''We should have a clearer picture by May about the future of the plant,'' he said.
Godfrey Hirst's Canterbury Wool Spinners had a plant at Bromley, but it was closed by the Christchurch earthquakes and production transferred to the North Island.
While it still has to decide what to do with Summit, maintaining a South Island presence would seem logical.
The Otago Daily Times understands the workers are under a permanent individual employment agreement based on similar terms and conditions of collective agreements the company has negotiated with First Union in the North Island and comparable to what they had under Summit.
A collective agreement is expected to be negotiated at some point.
Sumitomo bought Summit Wool Spinners in 1992 from Alliance Textiles. It employed about 250 people at the beginning of last year, but a fall in international demand for its products saw a call for voluntary redundancies and a reduction in staff to 192.
However, a continued slump in the market for carpet yarn led to the plant being sold to Canterbury Spinners.
Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton has welcomed the employment of the staff as ''good news''. He said another 30 former employees had already found other jobs.
