Frasers Group childrenswear business enters administration
Thu, 14 Mar 2024 | ADMINISTRATION
A retailer of designer clothing for children that forms part of the Frasers Group has been placed into administration, just over a year after being acquired from JD Sports. Michael Vincent Lennon and Benjamin John Wiles of Kroll have been appointed as joint administrators of Base Childrenswear.
Base Childrenswear was one of a raft of clothing businesses that Frasers Group acquired from JD Sports in December 2022 in a deal worth up to £47.5 million, along with brands including Tessuti, Topgrade Sportswear, Kids Cavern, Clothingsites and Pretty Green.
The company, which claims to be the UK’s leading retailer of designer clothing for children aged 0-16, was brought under the Flannels brand following the acquisition and began trading as Flannels Jnr. Administrators from Kroll have also been appointed to Dantra, which trades as Kids Cavern and Flannels Jnr.
The administration comes just a week after Frasers appointed administrators to e-commerce fashion business MATCHES, which it had acquired from a subsidiary of funds managed by Apax Partners for £52 million less than three months previously.
Base Childrenswear Limited’s most recent accounts at Companies House cover the year ending January 29 2022. At the time, company directors said that the business had experienced a “challenging” year as a result of ongoing economic uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, despite still being impacted by the pandemic, the company said that its e-commerce operation was continuing to grow profitably. The company stated that e-commerce would “remain the primary focus of growth and together with strategic store openings and end of lease store closures will create a balanced and focused retail operation.”
The company’s results during that period reflected this tentative improvement, with the business reporting turnover of £13.4 million, up from £11.8 million a year previously, while cutting its operating losses from £746,000 to £387,000.
At the time, its total assets were valued at around £6.6 million, but the company’s debts left it with net liabilities exceeding £2 million. It was subsquently sold by JD Sports along with other brands considering non-core to the business, before ultimately being placed into administration by Frasers.
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