Clintons buys back 196 Birthdays stores

RETAILER Clinton Cards has bought back 196 Birthdays stores a month after placing the loss-making North West group into administration.

Clinton has acquired the stores from administrator Zolfo Cooper for £3.5m, however £3.25m will be offset against what Birthdays already owed its former parent.

The news follows last week’s announcement by the administrators that it was closing 132 Birthdays stores with the loss of around 800 jobs.

Stores in Middleton, Salford, Wigan, Bolton, Eccles, Farnworth and Glossop were among those earmarked for closure.

It is understood Birthday’s Bury head office will also be closed.

Birthdays was founded by Bury entrepreneur Ron Wood in 1975. He sold out to investors in 1996 and went on to pursue a career in property development.

Essex-based Clinton Cards bought the business in 2004 for £46.4m from the Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter. In a statement the group said Birthdays’ sales performance has been improving but it has been losing around £7m a year.

Clinton said in the 12 months to 3 August 2008, the 196 stores had sales of £74m and made a contribution of £2.7m. The stores will continue to be operated under the Birthdays brand and will now be managed from the group’s head office in Essex.

Clinton said today that the company’s lenders whose consent is required for the transaction have the right to be issued with warrants to acquire 2% of the company’s current issued share capital in aggregate.

These warrants will be exercisable, at the average market price for the five business days following today’s announcement, after one year from the date of issue and for up to a further nine years.

Clinton Cards chairman Don Lewin said:  “We are very pleased to be able to report the successful purchase of a large proportion of the Birthdays stores thereby ensuring employment for 1,450 people.”