THE company behind a Bolton invention that could revolutionise the global textile industry has outlined plans to safeguard its development in Bolton.

Bosses at Industrial Technology Investments (ITI) last month prevented intellectual property rights to the Spinwell system from being bought by a Chinese firm in a £1.2 million deal.

Richard Swift, executive director of the firm, clinched a share deal with Anglo Arab Investments Ltd.

ITI will now look for investment to stave off any further hostile takeover attempt - and develop the technology for future production.

The Spinwell system speeds up the process of making cotton fibres, and combinations of cotton and other fibres, into yarn. It is claimed that the technology can spin yarns at up to 400 metres per minute.

The rate is more than twice the speed of existing rotor spinning techniques.

The deal with Anglo Arab Investments Ltd thwarted an attempted raid by China-based Bridge Holdings, which had tried to acquire 75.1 per cent of the company - and intellectual property rights to Spinwell.

Mr Swift said: "We are now searching to match the £1.2 million share equity money that the management buyout raised last month, to stave-off any unwelcome takeover of ITI."

The investment would enable ITI to build a pre-production factory model in Bolton.

This will then be commercially tested in a Czech Republic spinning mill.

Mr Swift said: "The search will not only entail offering further share-equity investment, but also obtaining government grants from both the UK and Europe."

Mr Swift added that an intellectual property licensing deal was still possible with a Chinese textile machine manufacturer, for that company to exploit within its own domestic market.

Mr Swift added: "The exciting and far-reaching possibilities this technology holds for the UK is immense. Notwithstanding royalty profits from intellectual property franchising in other parts of the world, there is the possibility that low-labour cotton spinning will once again be financially viable enough to take place in the Lancashire town of Bolton."