Cath Kidston acquired by UK's Next for £8.5M

Cath Kidston Limited has been struggling with its business, and it was revealed this week that Next Plc acquired it for £8.5 million or about $10.49 million. The British clothing retailer purchased the company from its administrators.

As per Reuters, Next Plc bought Cath Kidston's brand name, intellectual property (IP), and domain names. It was mentioned that the cathkidston.com domain would also be licensed back to the administrators for up to 12 weeks to sell all stock before Next could relaunch it under its management.

But while Next acquired all the mentioned assets, the four Cath Kidston's shops are said to be excluded from the deal. The retailer's administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), said these stores will remain in open while "business operations are wound down."

Cath Kidston is a popular retail brand that sells bags and home furnishings with floral designs. It collapsed in 2020 due to the pandemic, and this resulted in the shutting down of its stores in the United Kingdom and the layoff of almost 1,000 jobs.

It was subsequently acquired by Baring Private Equity Asia and was relaunched, but in July 2022, the private investment firm sold it to Hilco Capital. Last month, Hilco was reported to be considering the sale of Cath Kidston, and PwC has been serving as its administrator for the sale.

"The company has over recent years navigated through incredibly challenging market conditions including the pandemic restrictions, and most recently the decline in consumer spending driven by cost of living pressures and rising costs," Sky News quoted restructuring and insolvency partner at PwC, Zelf Hussain, as saying.

He added, "In the short term its four stores (London, York, Ashford, Cheshire Oaks) will continue to remain open whilst operations are wound down. Sadly, there will be redundancies during this period of wind down and we will continue to support the staff throughout this period."

Photo by: Betty Longbottom/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)