A MAN is pinning his business hopes on a piece of equipment that has been passed down through generations of his family.

Dave Howarth, 30, of Worsthorne, is the head of Louvre Tie UK, a new company based at Turf Moor Enterprise Haven that aims to make folding-up window blinds hassle free.

The innovative piece of equipment, which Dave hopes will transform the world of blinds, is a small piece of plastic or metal that can be attached to a window in order to keep louvre-style blinds together and in a bunch.

The hope is that the Louvre Tie will become an indispensable piece of kit for owners of the vertical blinds.

Bosses at Burnley FC have already become his first customer having bought several of the ties.

Dave, who has been working as a chef and has also been studying a music degree at the University of Central Lancashire, said the Louvre Tie is already being used at Turf Moor and he hopes the business takes off.

He said: “It’s something that came about quite a while ago from my grandma.

"The blinds at her house kept blowing her ornaments over so my granddad made some brackets to solve the problem.

"It has gone from there really and I want to manufacture it on a larger scale.”

While it is Dave who designed the Louvre Tie brackets, they are made at a factory in Birmingham before being sent back to the north.

A patent has been filed for the product and Dave is looking to be fully up and running by the end of the year.

“I’m hoping to start selling properly in the next few weeks,” said Dave.

“I’m looking at other funding streams to help with business and at what my options are.

"The next step is to get it in to shops and if I can do that it would be a real boost."