LEWISTON – The Maine Heritage Weavers didn’t see the increase in business it expected from the Yale University throws and bedspreads it recently began marketing to Ivy League alumni.

But with regular business up about 20 percent over the last six months, the fledgling company didn’t need to.

“I keep thinking if we had Yale (as expected), we’d be in trouble,” owner Fred Lebel said.

Business is so good, he expects to add another loom soon and a second shift of workers during the first quarter of 2008.

Lebel started Maine Heritage Weavers in 2002. His goal: preserve the heritage of renowned Bates bedspreads, which had been manufactured at the Bates Mill since before World War II, and keep its expert weavers employed. Lebel, who’d worked for Bates of Maine for 40 years, bought two looms from Biddeford Textiles and then the special Jacquard heads that modify the looms to produce the intricate weave patterns of Bates-style bedspreads. He set up shop next door to the Bates Mill in about 20,000 square feet of the Hill Mill.

The company now runs six looms and has 14 workers, twice the number of people it started with. Last year, it recorded its first profits.

This year, it introduced a throw and a bedspread woven with a giant “Y.” They were featured in the Yale University catalogue. Maine Heritage Weavers expected to get 2,100 to 2,800 orders from that, 1.5 to 2 percent of Yale’s 140,000 alumni, Lebel said.

It didn’t.

“We didn’t get too much of a response,” he said. “It was not what we expected.”

But in the meantime, new colors and styles perked up regular business, as did the closure of one of Maine Heritage Weavers’ competitors.

Even without the Yale orders, Lebel now expects business to grow another 25 percent next year.