OUTDOOR clothing firm Karrimor looks set to be sold to a South African firm in a multi-million deal.

Leisure and DIY group Cullinan Holdings is proposing to be buying more than 83 per cent of the Clayton-le-Moors based company for more than £5 million with an unnamed British investor taking the remainder of the group.

It will be the second time in less than three years that the firm, which employs around 150 in East Lancashire, has changed hands.

Karrimor was taken over by 21 Invest - part of the Italian Benetton empire - in 1996 for £7 million.

The Clayton-le-Moors-based firm was founded more than 50 years ago by the Parsons family.

The firm can trace its history back to the 1930s when Charlie Parsons had a bike shop in Waterfoot. The business later moved to Rawtenstall where Mike's mother Mary began making cycle bags. Karrimor moved into mountaineering equipment 35 years ago when two local climbers arrived at the shop and asked if they sold rucksacks.

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