West Bridgford branch to stay open as Feather & Black sold
The West Bridgford outlet of stricken homewares brand Feather & Black is to stay open after it was announced that 17 of the firm’s 20 stores have been sold out of administration.
Allan Graham and Matt Ingram, both of Duff & Phelps, joint administrators of Feather & Black have sold the majority of the business and its assets to Hilding Anders International (HA Group), a 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 be closed. The Feather & Black brand will be retained.
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. The firm was ultimately owned Charles Wade of Wade Furniture Group – based at Ravenstone Hall, near Coalville.
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. It 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 around 1,160 directly operated and franchised branded retail stores. The company had sales of EUR872m in 2016.
Graham said: “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.”
He 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 chief executive, said: “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 chief financial officer, said: “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.”
