HUNDREDS of employees in Bromsgrove are waiting to learn their future as historic paint brush and tool manufacturer, LG HARRIS, has entered negotiations to be acquired by a major Norwegian firm in a deal worth £55 million.

The Bromsgrove-based company, first started trading in 1928 as a family-owned business, and it still owned by family members from the Harris family along with the company’s management and employees.

A major employer for the area, it employs 350 staff at its Stoke Prior headquarters.

In addition the firm also owns a factory in Zhaoqing City in the Guangdong Province of China, and staffing for the firm as a whole totals nearly 1,000. It also owns 50 per cent of a joint venture with a local partner in India, and has a minority shareholding in a painting tool manufacturer in Sri Lanka.

Over the last 12 months the company had a turnover of £60.9 million.

Speaking about the sale and how it will affect the future of the Bromsgrove factory, Gary Jordan, managing director at LG Harris, said: “Nothing’s been decided in terms of management or future plans, but we’re a very substantial company both in terms of turnover and size.

“I’ve got every confidence in our site here in Bromsgrove. I think we’ve got every reason to be confident that this site will stand on its own two feet, and I think we can look forward to even more work and even more growth in the future. I can only see us getting bigger and stronger.”

Norwegian firm Orkla House Care, one of Europe’s largest painting tool manufacturers, has entered into an agreement to buy LG Harris, which would double the size of its operations, and the acquisition, which is subject to Competition and Markets Authority approval, should take several months to go through, if it is approved.

Orkla Homa Care’s parent company Orkla, employs approximately 14,700 staff, with a turnover of £2.8 billion in 2015, supplying branded goods for the consumer market, as well as out-of-home and bakery markets.

Rumours circulated in January that the company might be sold, but at that point management at LG Harris refused to confirm any details.