Confetti wooed by new suitor
A DEAL for Chadderton-based wedding retailer Confetti could be concluded within the next day or so, according to a source.
Joint administrators of the company, which is based at Greengate in Chadderton, are believed to have had more than 10 approaches to buy the business and assets of the firm, and are understood to be in negotiations with a preferred buyer.
Until this month, Confetti was part of Yorkshire-based home shopping giant Findel but was bought by Northwich-based The Hut Group on August 12 as part of a transaction which included boys’ toys’ website iwantoneofthose.com and the Findel Direct business in a deal worth £600,000. In the year to April 2, the combined businesses had reported an operating loss from continuing operations of £3.6m and a statutory pre-tax loss of £13.8m.
However, The Hut Group was understood to be more interested in iwantoneofthose.com than Confetti, and the business was placed into administration on August 17.
Nobody from RSM Tenon was available for comment this morning, but last week joint administrator Kenny Craig had said he was confident of finding a buyer for the business quickly.
“Confetti is a really well known brand in the market place and while nothing is certain, I am optimistic that a buyer can be found – we believe it has a lot of potential,” said Craig.
“The business was marketed for several months by Findel, so there was already some interest, which has grown since our appointment.”
The company employs 46 people in Chadderton, has a turnover of £5.7m and receives around eight million hits a month. It also traded from five high street stores at Birmingham, Reading, Leeds, London and Glasgow, but these have subsequently been shut down by the administrator, leading to 48 redundancies.
