TWO interior designers fear their business will take years to recover after pattern books were stolen.

Husband and wife team Alexandra and Gary Gorman, of Ram-shaw, Bishop Auckland, run an interior design company at Quarrington Hill, near Durham.

They had been returning from an exhibition at Birmingham NEC, when a trailer, containing their furniture designs and 40 pattern books, was stolen while they stopped at their village pub.

The theft of the fabric books could spell disaster for the upholstery and curtain specialists, as customers choose their materials from the books.

Mrs Gorman fears she will not be able to get hold of any more material samples as fabric companies produce them in limited numbers.

She said: "We decided to have a meal in The Bridge Inn. We pulled up and within about 20 minutes I saw the trailer being driven away.

"It contained everything we had exhibited at the show, a three-piece suite, curtains, foot stools and wrought iron furniture.

"The most important thing was the pattern books. It will probably take two to three years to get a collection like that again. Our business only started six months ago."

Thieves took the trailer between 7pm and 7.23pm on Monday.

Alecs Gary Interior Design Upholstery and Curtain Specialists was hand-painted on the trailer.

Anyone with information should ring PC Mike Burn on (01388) 603566.