Part of Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has swooped for the website of a collapsed Sunderland children’s retailer.
Designer Childrenswear, founded 30 years ago by husband and wife team Kevin and Brenda Coade, fell into administration and ceased trading with the loss of all jobs last week, despite its position as the UK’s third largest independent retailer of luxury branded children’s clothing.
The Sunderland business had been an early adopter of social media and sold more than 160 brands to over 120 countries worldwide. But changes to its website proved to be its downfall, as joint administrators at FRP Advisory revealed in their report.
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In Autumn 2022, the directors launched a project to renew Designer Childrenswear’s as part of moves to boost online orders – but the website installation “became protracted” and the site was offline for the crucial 2022 Black Friday period, which directors said lost the company around £1m in turnover. The website issue triggered a chain of cashflow events which ultimately led to the company ceasing trading last month, with creditors owed an estimated £1.5m.
Now, however, it has emerged that the Designer Childrenswear name and website has been snapped up by two Frasers Group firms, SDI Brands 7 Limited and SDI (Betws-y-coed) Limited. Documents show the two companies – the second of which lists Frasers Group as its parent company on Companies House – paid a combined £100,000 for certain assets of the Sunderland business.
The acquisition of the Designer Childrenswear website would give it a ready-made platform within the children’s luxury clothing sector, and access to customers around the globe.
The company entered administration on November 17, when Andrew Haslam and Allan Kelly were appointed as administrators and highlighted how the company had historically traded profitably and built-up cash reserves to allow forward orders for new seasons stocks to be placed with confidence.
Before their appointment efforts had been made to find a buyer and a unnamed national retailer which had previously mooted an acquisition of the company was contacted. After some deliberations, however, negotiations came to nothing.
The administrators’ report says: “Fortunately, towards the end of the marketing period, a party came forward with an offer to purchase some of the assets only and negotiations with the interested party were commenced with a view to securing a sale immediately following the company being placed into administration,
“The offer to purchase the assets of the company was split between two purchasers who are connected with each other, with one purchasing the chattel assets and another purchasing the intangible assets. It was concluded that the offer received was in the interest of the company’s creditors and served to achieve the statutory purpose of administration and as such, the offer was accepted.
“The purchasers are SDI Brands 7 Limited and SDI (Betws-y-coed) Limited. The purchasers are unconnected third parties, one of which is a vehicle that has been set up by a competitor in the trade for the purposes of facilitating this transaction and the other is a company to hold the intangible assets. We understand that the purchasers are utilising group funds to service the transaction.”
Frasers Group has been contacted for comment but has not responded.
