AN East Lancashire upmarket carpet manufacturer has been bought by a Yorkshire-based company in a £5million deal.

Sirdar, a stock market quoted company based in Wakefield, has acquired William Pownall and Sons.

The firm, based at Spenbrook Mill, Newchurch-in-Pendle, manufactures and distributes high quality wool rich carpets sold at home and overseas.

Pownall made a profit before tax for the year to December 31, 2001, of £700,000 on a turnover of £9.9 million.

Sirdar said the acquisition strengthened its position in the high quality residential carpet sector in the UK.

"The acquisition provides further cross-selling opportunities from within the enlarged group and provides the potential to increase the utilisation of the enlarged group's carpet manufacturing and distribution facilities." .

Sirdar, which employs more than 300 people, carries out converting, spinning, dyeing and finishing of yarns.

William Pownall and Sons was set up more than 70 years ago by the great-grandfather of the present shareholding directors.

The company has always been involved in the manufacture of household textiles and moved into the tufted carpet industry in the late 1950s.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s there were two divisions within the company - tufted carpet production at Spenbrook Mill and household textiles based in Manchester.

In 1995 the company's operations centralised at Spenbrook Mill. Managing director of the company is David Lowden, who has been with the company since 1961 and was formerly the production director.