Rescue deal agreed for crisis-hit retailer
Home furnishings group Giomani Designs has agreed a rescue deal to acquire crisis-hit Moda Furnishings, TheBusinessDesk.com can reveal.
Manchester-based Moda had filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators yesterday, to give it protection from creditors while a sale was completed.
The acquisition includes Moda’s head office and six showrooms, in Manchester, Caterham, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Milton Keynes and a pop-up in Leeds. All 75 Moda employees will transfer to Giomani Designs.
Giomani, which is based in Wednesbury, West Midlands, is a £30m-turnover furniture and homewares manufacturer and ecommerce retailer.
Aamir Khurshid from Giomani Designs said: “Moda is a well-established retailer with a strong brand and market-leading product. We are pleased to be investing in the future of the business and look forward to welcoming Moda’s employees into the Giomani group.”
Moda Furnishings was established in 2014 and acquired by private equity firm Endless in 2019, when it backed a management buyout led by chief executive Jonny Brierley and chief operating officer Vallan McCarthy.
Moda was a beneficiary of the lockdowns and annual sales more than doubled in two years, reaching £34m in the year to October 2021.
Although it had not filed its 2022 accounts, Moda had acknowledged “a material softening in demand” which it blamed on the cost-of-living crisis, high levels of competition and significant cost inflation in global freight costs.
The business “could not remain viable on a standalone basis against a backdrop of exceptional levels of discounting” as competitors seek to clear excess inventories.
