Allan Graham and Matt Ingram, both of Duff & Phelps Ltd, Joint Administrators of Feather & Black Limited have secured the successful sale of the majority of the business and its assets to Hilding Anders International (“HA Group”), a leading bedding and mattress company operating throughout Europe, Russia and Asia.
Under the terms of the sale Hilding Anders has acquired 17 out of a total of 20 stores saving 104 of the 123 employees across the business. Three stores – and five concessions within Multiyork stores – will however be closed. The Feather & Black brand will be retained and continue to have a presence on the UK High Street.
Feather & Black is a well-established bedroom furnishings brand offering premium bedroom furniture. The brand was founded in 2005 – although the business traces its history to 1994 -and has 25 retail stores nationwide, including concessions within Multiyork Furniture, with a head office and warehouse in Chichester.
HA Group is the clear market leader in Europe and Russia. Although HA Group is a products company with a comprehensive portfolio, it also has, where necessary, retail activities in a limited number of geographies to support the growth of its premium product portfolio. HA Group has 26 brands across premium/international and strong regional/local segments together with a private label offering. HA Group is focused on 21 core markets with sales in over 60 countries worldwide. HA Group currently has 25 production facilities in 19 countries and over 9,000 employees producing a full range of bedding products. In Russia and China, HA Group has 1,160 directly operated and franchised branded retail stores. HA had sales of EUR872m in 2016.
Allan Graham, Joint Administrator, Duff & Phelps, stated: “The Joint Administrators continued to trade Feather & Black in Administration with a view to finding a purchaser for the business as a going concern, so we are delighted that we have been able to secure a future for the brand, the business and over 100 employees who work for the retailer.”
Allan Graham continued: “The majority of the stores have been sold to one of the best known brands in the bedroom furniture sector securing the future for Feather & Black and a large number of its valued employees. This is a tremendous result for the business.”
A legal team at Eversheds Sutherland, led by Restructuring Partner Mark Wood, acted for Duff & Phelps on the transaction.
Pepyn Dinandt, Chairman and Group CEO, commented: “I am very excited by this opportunity to re-enter the UK market with F&B. F&B has a strong market position, excellent customer loyalty and a deep heritage within the UK market. We will build on F&B’s solid platform and grow the business across both stores and eCommerce. We will continue with F&B’s current customer and product positioning whilst also looking at further ways to improve our productivity and profitability.”
Joanne Bennett, Group CFO, commented: “As a UK national, I have been aware of what the F&B brand stands for, the quality of its products and a regular visitor to my local F&B store for many years. I am also very excited by this opportunity to work with the team to build on the brand strength and grow the business together.”
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