EMERGENCY recovery meetings are being held to try and save a Guiseley factory from closure.

Last Thursday employees at Silver Cross pram manufacturers, Otley Road, were laid-off and since then emergency meetings have been held with a view to finding a buyer for the long established company.

Clare Sagar, a spokeswoman for the firm, said: "Talks are being held and we are hopeful a buyer will be found. We are just keeping our fingers crossed."

Management have otherwise declined to comment.

A shop floor worker, who did not wish to be named, said he was upset at the news. "Workers on the shop floor tend to be forgotten when it comes to information as to what is happening at the firm. At present we are in limbo and we are waiting for a letter from the firm. Until we get this letter then we just don't know what to do," he said. "It is a shame that this has happened to a firm like this," he added.

Michael Nelson, of Guiseley, a retired management services director, said the news regarding the firm's decline was indeed a sad one. "A lot of local people have spent their lives working at Silver Cross and I will be sorry if the firm goes down. Silver Cross is a quality product," he said.

"I suppose I could say I don't give a monkey's about the firm now I am retired, but I can't because it was part of my life for many years, from leaving school to my retirement," he added.

In March, the 120 year-old firm announced that it was making 40 workers redundant, bringing its current work force down to 100.

Last September the firm had announced it was discarding its old-fashioned image for a racier style in a bid to woo a new generation of mums and tots.

A radical revamp of the business was unveiled to an international market and complete with new logo and pram and pushchair designs, bosses were hopeful the £4m relaunch would help bolster the company's flagging fortunes.

The new look meant the more traditional Silver Cross prams - made for 62 years by the once family run-business would take a back seat to more colourful, fashion-led designs.

l Last month plans to turn a Silver Cross warehouse in Guiseley into a sports hall were revealed.The firm confirmed it was selling off some of its land. Bradford based Ferinni Ltd submitted plans to Leeds City Council for a five-a-side football hall at one of the Silver Cross warehouses.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.