Guiseley-based pram and push-chair specialist Silver Cross is getting a boost with a £4 million re-financing package after months of fears for its future.

The company is being turned around by new managing director Harry Moore - the former general manager - and marketing director Sarah Bird.

The pair have taken control of the previously family-run business after months of speculation about the future of the business.

The company, which has made prams for Royalty in the past, has been struggling for years. Last September it shed 40 jobs and now employs 190 staff.

Harry Moore was brought in by advisers for the shareholders Price Waterhouse Coopers and intended to stay only months.

"But after a few months I realised that the company had potential and so, after failing to find a suitable buyer, I decided to have a go at turning the company around myself," he said.

Much of the re-financing package came from £1.5 million from Venture Finance of Sussex.

The company plans to reduce its range of prams and pushchairs and concentrate on more fashionable goods.

The firm, which started in Hunslet, Leeds in 1877, took its name from its second home in Silver Cross Street, Leeds, where it moved to in 1898.

The company moved to the current Guiseley site in 1936.

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