Clinton Cards sale saves Midlands jobs
SOME 36 Clinton Cards shops in the West Midlands are amongst those to be saved following the purchase of 397 of the firm’s retail outlets by Lakeshore Lendings, a subsidiary of a US card firm.
The shops – including six in Birmingham, three in Solihull, three in Coventry, two in Dudley and two in Hanley – have all be spared the axe in the deal which will save 4,500 jobs around the UK.
Clinton Cards went into administration on May 9 and a week later administrator Zolfo Cooper said that 350 of the company’s 784 shops would have to close, including all of its Birthdays-branded stores. The closures were expected to lead to the loss of 3,000 full or part-time jobs.
Lakeshore Lendings is a subsidiary of Ohio-based card company American Greetings, which was one of Clinton Cards’ largest suppliers.
Commenting on the sale, 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.”
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 administrators will now focus their efforts on the store portfolio identified as part of the closure programme. These stores will either be sold or closed.
