SHAREHOLDERS have agreed to the sale of an East Lancashire office seating factory in a £1.75 million deal.

Calderburn is disposing of its Blackburn-based Dauphin factory to Daco, part of a German-based group.

An extraordinary general meeting of Calderburn shareholders has given the green light to the deal.

The factory, based in Peter Street where Calderburn is also headquartered, employs more than 60 staff. Under the proposal, manufacturing will remain in Blackburn.

Daco is part of Dauphin Office Interiors in Germany which owns a 15 per cent stake in Calderburn. Dauphin in Blackburn currently manufactures office seating under licence from the German group.

The sale follows months of speculation about the future ownership of the site.

A report to shareholders stressed that Dauphin has lost market share in recent years and said that the office seating market was becoming increasingly competitive partly because of imports. The firm said the sale of the business would enable it to concentrate on its office furniture side.

In the year to December 31 1997, Dauphin made a loss before tax of £175,000 on turnover of £6.6 million.

Calderburn was formed in 1991 by the merger of East Lancashire office furniture groups Alan Cooper and Mayfield which produced office seating under the Dauphin tradename.

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