The Keighley businessman who bought Scotland’s renowned Harris Tweed industry has announced the company will release a new jacket targeted at a younger market.

Brian Haggas, who owns Harris Tweed Scotland Limited, said the sleeker, lightweight jacket would be launched in Florence and Chicago early next year.

He bought the troubled company KM Group — which once produced 95 per cent of Harris Tweed — in late 2006, pledging to try to revitalise the brand.

Today, the business’s marketing and warehousing operations are run from a base off Haincliffe Road, Ingrow.

But the manufacturing takes place in the Western Isles of Scotland. A total of 115 handloom weavers produce the tough, distinctive fabric in their own homes.

Harris Tweed is the only brand in the world protected by an Act of Parliament.

Mr Haggas, 78, stressed that by law genuine Harris Tweed must be dyed, spun and woven by hand by the islanders of Lewis, Harris, Uist and Barra, using 100 per cent pure new wool. He said the brand’s success had peaked in the 1970s, then declined sharply when many designs were created and sold too cheaply by rival companies.

“Everyone wanted a piece of the action and competitors fought each other tooth and nail,” he said. “That was the road to ruin and business tailed off.

“When we came along the business was in a poor way and something radical had to be done.

“We cut the number of patterns down from eight thousand to four.”

He said some of the changes made him unpopular in the Western Isles, with one local clergyman dubbing him a “vile serpent”.

In spite of the recession, he said the business was “winning” and selling increasing numbers of jackets.

His efforts to boost the company’s fortunes have even featured in a recent BBC documentary about Tweed.

The new Harris Tweed jacket will be officially launched at the Chicago Collective and Pitti Uomo fashion shows in January.

Mr Haggas said: “Every customer we’ve had loves the product but the only question we had was could we do something lighter in weight for the younger person?”

His family have been involved in the textile industry since 1715 and founded what used to be one of the biggest textile manufacturers in Keighley.

He said he was happy to be still working at the age of 78.

“What else is there to do?” he said. “It keeps me out of mischief and I feel just the same as I did when I was 20.”