THE founders of troubled bedmaker Silentnight are planning to take the group private to concentrate on restructuring "without stock market distraction".

Soundersleep, which comprises members of the firm's founding Clarke family and management pair Antonino Allenza and Michelle Scott, said it was buying the shares in the group that it did not already own.

The announcement came as Silentnight, valued at £72.2m, posted a 29 per cent fall in operating profits for the six months to August 2, to £3.5m.

But pre-tax losses narrowed to £6.5m from £7.1m a year ago.

The offer, which values Silentnight shares at 155p each, will result in the company delisting from the London Stock Exchange.

The struggling group, which employs 700 staff at its Homeworthy operation, in Sunderland, has been undergoing a restructuring since Mr Allenza and Ms Scott became involved last year.

The difficulties prompted the company's decision in April to axe up to 800 jobs in its furniture division, including the closure of its Ducal furniture factory in Andover, Hampshire, which employed 550 people.

The group plans to turn its branded furniture business around and address margin pressures and long-term market trend away from traditional divan sets.

The late Tom Clarke and his surviving wife, Joan, set up Silentnight in 1946 and floated it on the Stock Exchange in 1973.

A separate group, Famco, was established in 1982 to hold shares in trading companies on behalf of the Clarke family and is controlled by 20 Clarke family trusts. Mrs Clarke remains a Famco director.

Soundersleep, a subsidiary of Famco, was set up in May last year to bring together the interests of the Clarke family and those of Mr Allenza and Ms Scott, who have invested £250,000.