Arts and crafts business Crafter’s Companion is set to appoint administrators under a pre-pack insolvency of the company.

The business is gearing up to appoint administrators at management consultant Interpath as part of a fast-track process, The Times reported.

Under the restructuring, Crafter’s Companion founder, minority shareholder and Dragons Den star Sara Davies will increase her investment in the company and return as its CEO. The financial terms of the deal remain unknown.

A notice of intention to hire administrators was filed at the High Court by the brand’s majority shareholder, Growth Partner, during recent days.

Roughly 100 jobs are expected to be saved. However, it remains unclear how much debt Crafter’s Companion held or the level of unsecured creditors.

It comes after an increased investment by Growth Partner last year. The business had also secured new bank facilities in 2024 with Santander in the UK and HSBC in the US, in a bid to return it to monthly cash profitability.

Davies, who was a minority shareholder, explained she would “significantly” raise her shareholding under the insolvency process by “investing a lot of my own capital”.

She said: “During Covid, the business really flourished [but] since then the performance dropped, particularly in the US.

“We were really affected by the downturn of a couple of major customers in the US. And being really honest, as a management team, we were just very slow to react.”

She added: “The problem we’ve had is the debt structure currently in place in the business meant that it was just impossible to continue to invest in the brand.”

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