Hut Group picks up gadget retailer from Findel
ECOMMERCE retailer The Hut Group has bought three loss-making businesses from Yorkshire-based educational supplies business Findel for £600,000.
The Northwich -based company, which has a £50m turnover and raised £14m in pre-IPO funding in April to acquire online businesses, is buying gadget website iwantoneofthose.com, wedding gifts website Confetti.com and the former Findel Direct business.
The three businesses posted a combined pre-tax loss of £13.8m in the year to April 2 2010 and although it had gross assets of £3.6m its net liabilities were £19.3m.
Findel said that it had already written down the carrying value of the businesses and would use the proceeds of the sale to pay down some of its debt, which stood at £309.6m at April 2.
Findel also said that the sale would allow its management to “focus its full attention on its core businesses”.
The Hut Group, which already runs its own website offering personalised gifts and experience days known as gifted.com, was keen to acquire iwantoneofthose.com as it met the criteria set out when it announced its £14m funding deal of targeting businesses which had “leading positions in adjacent product categories”.
The company will look to introduce the gadget ranges supplied by iwantoneofthose.com to its own website, as well as offering gadgets as a new category on the entertainment websites it runs for partner retailers including Debenhams, Asda and Tesco.
The Hut Group also recently opened overseas operations for its Zavvi.com brand in Spain and the Netherlands, and it believes that there are cross-selling opportunities between those and iwantoneofthose.com’s operations in Germany.
Findel acquired iwantoneofthose.com as part of a £34m package of businesses including Middleton-based retailer of football equipment Kitbag and the Kleeneze home shopping business in 2006 from the administrators of European Home Retail – the parent company of collapsed hamper savings club firm Farepak.
The Hut Group was advised by HBJ Gateley Wareing’s Manchester office and Findel was advised by Hammonds.
The head of Hammonds’ Manchester office and corporate finance partner, Jane Haxby, said: “These disposals form part of the board’s previously stated strategy to exit non-core and loss-making operations. The plan is for the group’s management to focus its full attention on its core business.”
