Clinton Cards deal saves 40 North West stores
THE new owner of almost 400 Clinton Cards stores insists the retailer has a profitable future.
US firm American Greetings has bought the stores and the Clinton Cards brand through a subsidiary, Lakeshore Lending, in a deal which could safeguard around 4,500 jobs. In the North West and North Wales alone, Lakeshore Lending has taken on 40 former Clinton Cards and Birthdays Cards stores employing around 400 people.
A former supplier to Clinton Cards, American Greetings had already acquired the business’s senior secured debt for around £36m ($56m).
American Greetings chief executive Zev Weiss said: “We are pleased to welcome these stores, the Clinton Cards brand, and the approximately 4,500 employees as members of the American Greetings family. As mentioned before, we believe that properly managed, and with the appropriate capital structure, Clinton Cards can be both an important and profitable retailer in the specialty channel of distribution over the long term.
“The separation of the acquired assets and business from the legal entity in administration is an important first step of this process. We have also lined-up a leadership team to run the new UK subsidiary that has extensive specialty retail channel experience.”
American Greetings said the deal represented £203m in revenue or £170m when stripped out of income from the sale of its own products.
The deal leaves around 350 stores in the hands of administrators Zolfo Cooper, which will be sold or closed. Some 23 of these are in the North West.
Peter Saville, joint administrator and partner at Zolfo Cooper, said: “We have always been of the view that despite an intensely competitive retail environment and what proved to be excessively ambitious expansion plans in recent years, there was a strong underlying business contained within Clinton Cards.
“The significant number of credible expressions of interest we received for the business we have sold today, from both trade and financial buyers alike, is testament to this fact.”
