Word is that Cotton Traders founders and past ECMOD Direct Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award winners Fran Cotton and Steve Smith are seeking a buyer for their clothing business.
Cotton Traders started out as a direct menswear operation selling rugby shirts via its mail order catalogue. Today the business has moved heavily into womenswear and operates over 100 retail stores and concessions plus an online store which are promoted heavily via catalogues under the Cotton Traders and Cotton Edits brands loose inserted into the national press. It achieved sales of £82.2 million in its most recently filed accounts.
It is being suggested that CorpAac is in talks to acquire the business. This seems plausible, though no one from either business will confirm or deny it, as CorpAcq owns the Sale Sharks rugby club along with more than a dozen other companies.
Watch this space.
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