Celebrities are queuing to get their youngsters into a Silver Cross pram - the baby buggy that's a must-have for many parents. Britain's oldest pram manufacturer has already conquered Hollywood - now it has its sights on new markets in China and India. Marie-Claire Kidd reports on the company's latest moves.

Silver Cross plans to build on its huge celebrity following - which includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Courteney Cox Arquette, Elizabeth Hurley and Catherine Zeta Jones - with new ranges of maternity wear, baby wear and nursery furniture.

The latest star endorsement comes courtesy of Hollywood's hottest couple, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who have their own "mini fleet" of Silver Cross prams. Angelina has a traditional-style Silver Cross Balmoral, otherwise known as the "Bentley for babies", and Brad carries their youngster Shiloh in the urban-design Silver Cross 54 in black and chrome.

And Maggie Gyllenhall, sister of Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhall and one of Hollywood's hottest young actresses, announced that she wants nothing but Silver Cross for her expected baby.

These celebrity fans have generated priceless international publicity for the firm's traditional and more modern Lifestyle' ranges, especially in the US - a new and already extremely successful market for the brand.

The 130-year-old firm hand-makes its traditional models - the Balmoral, the Kensington and the Oberon - at a small factory in Bingley and produces its Lifestyle range in China, where its research shows manufacturing costs are lowest.

More than 100,000 of the prams, all designed by a small team at its headquarters in Nesfield House, Broughton Hall, Skipton, are sold every year, but the figure is growing rapidly, with aggressive expansion plans for the future.

At the beginning of the year Silver Cross moved into the international market and is now selling in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Denmark. Building on recent international success will be a huge focus for the future, said chairman Alan Halsall.

"I think Silver Cross is a fabulous Yorkshire brand," says the Lancastrian businessman. "It's a great export. The two obvious other areas where there's a growing middle class are China and India."

The team is already looking for a distributor in India and Mr Halsall and managing director Nick Paxton will travel to China to investigate new markets there before the end of the year.

"It's not going to happen overnight," said Mr Halsall, "but I'm sure the up and coming, wealthy people in India and China would love a traditional Yorkshire brand which offers heritage and history with modern design. They already love it in Japan and America.

"If you can get the leaders in the entertainment business taking Silver Cross because they see it as an iconic British brand with modern design then that's priceless.

"These top stars, they know what they want. They want something that's leading fashion, and Silver Cross is a leader, there's no question about that."

The company is also moving into the most aggressive period of research and development in its history and is looking for the first time at expanding beyond baby transport to become a global nursery brand, with plans to launch a maternity and baby wear range in 2007.

Again the design was in Skipton and this week the new clothing collection gets its first airing at a trade fair in Cologne, Germany.

Mr Halsall said: "We're a very, very small company growing very, very rapidly. We believe that Silver Cross is a great nursery brand. We're majoring in prams and pushchairs but we're going to move into nursery furniture in due course - a Silver Cross solution for the nursery. It will be tremendous, superb quality, designed in Skipton.

"I'm a Lancastrian. I never thought I'd buy a Yorkshire company but I think the team we've got here in Yorkshire is the best in the industry."

Fleetwood-based toy maker David Halsall International (DHI), which was owned by Mr Halsall and his brother Graham, bought Silver Cross in 2002.

The pram maker was in receivership after it collapsed due to the discovery of £3 million of financial irregularities in its accounts. But it has gone from strength to strength since its relaunch in 2002, launching 14 new products in the last four years.

Now Graham Halsall has completed a multi-million-pound management buyout of DHI, which has allowed Silver Cross to become a separate company. Silver Cross still maintains links with DHI, which has its head office in Hong Kong, and Alan Halsall will continue to work as a consultant to DHI, especially in its licensing operations, but he is keen to focus on developing Silver Cross.

He said: "In 1877, when Silver Cross was established, it was incredibly innovative.

"It was at the forefront of thinking for prams. We've got to be the same today.

"We've got to be loyal to the tradition of great British design but also innovative and a little bit clever, and those two things aren't incompatible."

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