BRINTONS shareholders say the Kidderminster family carpet dynasty was sold to American buy-out giant Carlyle, without their consent – leaving them with nothing.

In an exclusive interview with The Shuttle, Guy Burnell, who was chairman of Brintons’ Family Council for two years, spoke of the group’s “great sadness”

that family ties to the 228- year-old firm were cut in a £40 million deal.

Mr Burnell, the son-in-law of Michael Brinton, who chaired the company for nearly 20 years until he retired about five years ago, said: “We feel quite distressed about the communication which implies it was sold with the blessing of the family, which is completely untrue.

“They have lost all their investment.

The implication that we may have in any way benefitted from this is false.”

Brintons’ largest single shareholder owned about 12 per cent of the company and a further three to four family groupings each owned another 10 per cent.

They are thought to have lost tens of millions of pounds between them.

Carlyle Strategic Partners has taken control of the business in return for a £20 million cash injection, as well as taking on another £20 million of debts.

Mr Burnell said that the council had scheduled a meeting on Tuesday to change an article to give members the right to approve the sale or transfer of any assets. But Brintons’ website announced it had been acquired by The Carlyle Group on Monday.

Mr Burnell said: “The first I heard about the administration was in the Sunday Times and The Shuttle.”

He believes Brintons’ decline was not just due to the increased price of wool or the recession but the executive team’s decision to go against shareholders’ wishes and invest more than £15 million – the largest capital expenditure in the company’s history – in a factory in China at a time when the world economy was slowing.

He also listed management’s failure to cut costs, the loss of longstanding European distribution partners, a £2 million over-stocking of bought-in product and quality control issues as evidence for “a business which has lost its way and its core values.”

He said: “[The Brinton family] ceded executive control of the company about five years ago, since when there has been an unprecedented loss of value in the business from over £60 million to nothing.”

He said shareholders felt they had been “ruthlessly sidelined”

and felt an incredible sense of loss for the family business they would have loved to have seen survive for another 228 years.

Brintons declined to comment.