WORLD-famous pram-making firm Silver Cross has this week been bought by a national company dealing in nursery equipment, the Wharfedale Observer can reveal.

The renowned Guiseley firm has been acquired by Manchester-based Design Company Holdings, only 15 months after it was saved at the last minute by a team of Oxfordshire private investors.

Joan Spours, a director at Design Company, said that she was not yet in a position to give many details about the purchase or the company's plans for the future, but confirmed that the deal was completed for an undisclosed sum on Tuesday.

"I only spoke to staff for the first time yesterday and until I've spoken to them again, it wouldn't be right to say in the Press what our plans for the site are."

Full details of the purchase are due to be released by the end of this week, she said.

"We are a company in the nursery market and we see the purchase of Silver Cross as a vital part of our strategy for long-term growth. Obviously, Silver Cross is a major international name in the field.

"Another company in our group is already an established and successful supplier in the industry," Mrs Spours added.

No-one was available for comment at the factory, although a source close to the company told the Wharfedale Observer that they were looking forward to the future and that it was 'business as usual'.

Rumours had been circulating throughout Guiseley for the last fortnight that Silver Cross was about to be bought.

In April 1999, the Otley Road firm's future was plunged into doubt when it went into administrative receivership with heavy debts of more than £4 million and 70 workers were made redundant. The 122-year-old company, which moved to Guiseley from Hunslet in the mid-1930s, sold off part of its site between Otley Road and Back Lane to a housing developer in a bid to streamline its operations.

It was taken over the following month by a consortium of family and friends from Oxfordshire in what was believed to be a multi-million pound deal.

Three months ago the rescued pram factory celebrated the launch of its first new line since it was saved last year in the hope that the prams and pushchairs would spell a new beginning.

Silver Cross has employed 70 more people to produce the new prams.

55 textile jobs

under threat

FIFTY-FIVE textile workers face an uncertain future as bosses consider closing a Rawdon factory.

Leeds Group, which is consulting the workforce at Colourflex Yarn Processors, Riverside Mills, is considering moving its dyeing activities to one of its other factories in Carlisle, and closing the Rawdon plant. Directors said such a move would help the company to continue competing in an increasingly challenging market place.

Leeds Group UK dyeing director Jeff Beardsley confirmed the board of Leeds Dyers Ltd was considering ending dyeing and twisting work at Rawdon.

He said he could not make any further comment on the situation as he did not wish to prejudice or affect the integrity of the consultation process, which could take up to four weeks.