The future of one of Bradford's best-known companies has been assured.

Bulmer & Lumb has been taken over by its management in a £5m deal from parent company Allied Textiles.

The textile company employs 350 people at its headquarters in Buttershaw.

A Bulmer & Lumb spokesman said it was hoped the deal would safeguard jobs. Bulmer & Lumb is a specialist firm which provides a range of products and services to the wool and textile industry, such as contracting with suppliers of raw materials, dyeing yarns and weaving worsted fabrics.

The firm was formed in the 1930s and has been based in its present headquarters in Royds Hall Lane, Buttershaw, since the 1960s.

It now exports over 50 per cent of its business outside the European Union.

The management buy-out (MBO) team comprises five directors, including MD Bill Waterhouse and colleagues Hugh Anderson, Mark Feather, David Lister and David Midgley.

Bulmer & Lumb said the team shared a wealth of experience in the textile industry and combined have spent nearly 50 years with the firm.

Mr Waterhouse, who led the MBO, said he was pleased with the way the deal has been completed.

"We are now delighted to be looking forward to building on the global strength of the business, by continuing to provide superb quality goods and services," he said.

Mike Selina, business development manager, of Yorkshire Bank's Regional Business Centre in Broadway, helped put together the finance. He said: "This is a great project in which to be involved, largely as we have such faith in the quality of the management running Bulmer & Lumb."

The MBO team was advised by KPMG Corporate Finance and Eversheds.