Almost 1,400 jobs were saved when Alteri bought Brantano, soon after allowing it to fall into administration.
The private equity firm owned Brantano just before it collapsed, following a dire Christmas trading period which saw Brantano‘s sales plummet. According to Alteri CEO Gavin George, Alteri had attempted to find an agreement to reduce the rent paid by Brantano before it brought in administrators. Although it paid £10m to buy back Brantano, Alteri has not revealed the financial details of the acquisition.
“It is unlikely that many are going to lose out,” said Gavin George, CEO of Alteri. “We tried really, really hard to undertake the restructuring solvently, but we were unable to do so. This is the only way we could restructure the business to give it a good go-forward position.”
Alteri purchased 81 shops and 59 small concessions, rescuing 1,372 jobs but leaving 600 at risk at the outlets Alteri chose not to claim. Administrators PwC will continue to run these remaining stores until a buyer can be found, though they warned that unless this happens imminently redundancies will be “inevitable.”
Regardless, PwC Deals Partner Robert Moran called this outcome the best possible “for creditors and employees.”
“From discussions held over the last few weeks, there was interest from a number of parties, both trade and private equity for the Brantano business.
Of this interest, the offer from Alteri represents the best outcome for creditors and employees. We are delighted that 1,372 jobs have been preserved through the transaction and thank the Brantano team for working closely and collaboratively with us throughout what has been a difficult period for the business.”
