A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE who backed a pillow firm is sleeping even more soundly after making a paper profit of more than £1million.

Earlier this year, hi-fi shop tycoon Julian Richer bought a stake in French Group, which owns pillow and quilt manufacturer Northern Textiles in Burnley.

At the time the shares were almost at their lowest point - around 24p.

But city interest in Mr Richer's investment in the firm, a turnaround in its fortunes and last week's appointment of ASDA boss Archie Norman as chairman have pushed shares up to 85p - almost four times the value in April.

Mr Norman has options to acquire around two million shares in the group over a five year period as part of his remuneration package and has seen the value of his potential stake more than double in the last week.

In April Mr Richer bought more than two million shares in French Group and now owns more than 14 per cent of the Manchester-based group which is headed by Bill Gleave, founder of Trafalgar Street-based Northern Textiles which employs more than 200 people. Mr Gleave, who is credited with much of the success of its parent company, has also made significant gains over the past year on his own shareholding in French.

According to the latest annual report of French Group he owns 873,468 shares in the firm - today worth around £750,000. Last October he bought 125,000 shares when they were at 40p.

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