Celtic & Co has returned a £400,000 pre-tax profit on its sales of £6.1 million, after being bought out of administration by its founders who had had every intention of retiring. The Newquay based business of Hide & Feet was originally acquired in 1990 by Nick and Kath Whitworth who had renamed it The Original Ugg Co. and grew the locally made sheepskin footwear brand. Famously they sold the rights to the Ugg name to the Australian owner of the surfers’ boot brand same name, rebranding their Cornish business as Celtic & Co. In 2011 they sold out to Piper Private Equity who had plans to develop the brand. PPE put a new management team in place and embarked on a major expansion of the business. However, as widely reported, the business incurred two consecutive years of losses having fallen victim to over-ambitious plans, heavy overheads, and the couple were able to buy it back.
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