Eve Sleep's brand and intellectual property has been sold to Bensons for Beds after the company entered administration.
The AIM-listed direct-to-consumer sleep wellness brand, which operates in the UK, Ireland and France, appointed Matt Ingram and Jimmy Saunders from Kroll this morning to handle the affairs of the company and manage the sale to the Lancashire-headquartered business.
Bensons for Beds will be taking over the eve Sleep brand and website from today.
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The appointment of the administrators follows the announcement of a formal sale process in June 2022.
Matt Ingram, managing director of Kroll, said: "Eve Sleep is a well-established brand with huge visibility across the UK, however it faced a challenging market backdrop over the past year.
"The company launched a formal sales process in June 2022 but with UK consumer confidence reaching a record low in August 2022 this process was unsuccessful."
Eve Sleep was founded in 2015 and listed on AIM in May 2017. Eve sells its products through a retail partnership with DFS and through its online portal.
Bensons for Beds chief executive Nick Collard added: "Eve Sleep is a brand that we know resonates strongly with key customer groups and we’re looking forward to unlocking its full potential as it takes advantage of our scale and reach.
"What’s more, bringing in Eve Sleep alongside our own growing portfolio of high quality in-house brands will help us widen Bensons appeal to a broader set of customers.
"With the backing of our owner, Alteri Investors, this is another indication that we are delivering on our pledge to fulfil the promise of the Bensons for Beds brand itself - not just as a retailer of market leading proprietary brands, but with a distinctive and coherent set of owned brand sleep solutions for any customer, both digitally and through our stores."
Gavin George, CEO of Alteri Investors, said: "It is encouraging to see Bensons continuing to strengthen its position in what remains a challenging market.
"Eve Sleep is a strong brand name that resonates with a different demographic of younger consumers. Alteri is pleased to back Bensons’ management in the acquisition of a brand which will augment the group’s offer, widen its appeal and boost its digital credentials."
Eve Sleep, which floated on the stock market in 2017 with a £140m valuation, has witnessed a slide in customer numbers and increased cost pressures in recent years.
The retail firm said the outcome for creditors is unknown but added that it "is not expected" there will be "any return to the shareholders of Eve" after hiring the insolvency specialists.
In June, the business said it was on the lookout for a buyer or new investor as it warned it would miss revenue targets for the year following a significant consumer downturn.
Bosses said they were in talks with a US investor that was interested - at least for a while - in making a bid to take the company private, but discussions later lapsed.
The board launched a formal sale process as a result and received "a number of indicative offers", but, following further discussions and due diligence, was unable to secure a deal.
Eve Sleep chief executive Cheryl Calverley said: "It is heartbreaking to have to acknowledge that the best way to preserve value for creditors, those partners and suppliers that have helped us on this journey, is to now terminate the formal sale process and appoint administrators.
"Having seen the year start so brightly, with the efforts of the team over the past three years in rebuilding Eve into a business fit for profitable growth coming to fruition, the frustration at the unprecedented downturn in the market over February and March was felt all the more keenly.
"Despite monumental efforts to restructure the business and reshape the cost base, the scale of Eve was simply insufficient to withstand the economic tsunami that has gathered momentum over the past six months, and allow it to continue as an independent business."
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