It’s a company used to undercover work.
Now Elland-based carpet underlay manufacturer Texfelt can reveal the closely guarded secret of how it got involved with 007 James Bond.
The firm, which has supplied high quality underlay for carpeting in five-star hotels, stately homes, apartments and offices for many years, discovered that filmmakers at Pinewood Studios have also been using its products on the sets of blockbuster movies including the latest Bond film, Spectre.
Texfelt general manager Dave Teague said: “The company making Spectre ordered some underlay from our website. I was intrigued, so I rang them up to ask what they needed it for. It turned out they wanted 200 rolls of underlay to cover a large water tank on the 007 sound stage to deaden the echo of the tank.”
Mr Teague said it emerged that the studio had been using Texfelt products for some time – but had previously ordered it from carpet retailers.
Now supplying the movie industry has opened up a whole new market for the company, which employs just nine people in modest premises at South Lane Mills.
In the past 18 months, Texfelt has provided underlay for sound insulation or special effects use on films including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jason Bourne, The Kingsman, The Snow Queen and the forthcoming film version of video game Assassin’s Creed.
Mr Teague said: “Special effects experts have found that if you soak our underlay with kerosene, it produces great smoke effects – to be used only in a safe environment! It is also used in explosions. They wrap the underlay around whatever they’re blowing up to reduce the risk of shrapnel and other bits and pieces flying everywhere.”
Managing director James Taylor, who has spearheaded the development of Texfelt since it was acquired more than 20 years ago by his family’s Bradford-based business James Robinson Fibres, said: “Selling underlay is not generally considered the most glamorous business, but when it’s being used to produce special effects in films, that’s different.”
