NEWS | Round-up Victoria Plum sold in pre-pack deal
ONLINE BATHROOM giant Victoria Plum has been sold in a pre-pack administration deal following weeks of speculation about the company’s future. Owner Endless LLP appointed administrators from Ernst & Young on September 29, who then immediately completed a sale to AHK Designs – whose affiliate, Giomani Designs, owns other online retailers
Beds.co.uk and Cox & Cox. A statement from Ernst & Young says that any customers who have placed an order which is yet to arrive will not receive their products and will not get a refund unless it’s from their credit card provider.
Victoria Plum, which says it is the
UK’s largest online only bathroom retailer, sells own label products as well as brands such as Bristan, Mira, Grohe, Ideal Standard, Rak Ceramics, VitrA, and Aqualisa – who will now become unsecured creditors. The list of unsecured creditors will also include the independent bathroom fitters who carry out Victoria Plum’s installation work. Just hours before the sale was revealed, the British Institute of KBB Installation (BiKBBI) said many installers were “anxious about outstanding financial liabilities owed by the business for comleted installations”. BiKBBI chief executive Damian
Walters said that he had “spoken to a number of concerned installers who fear being left high and dry”. AHK Designs confirmed that the acquisition includes Victoria Plum’s head office and distribution network,
with all 300 of the company’s employees transferring to the new owner. Endless acquired Victoria Plum in 2019 and oversaw three years of profitable growth. However, in a statement, AHK said that “significant cost inflation in global freight costs and cost of living pressures” had impacted profitability and cash flows in recent months and the business would benefit from being part of a larger group.
Aamir Khurshid from AHK Designs said: “Victoria Plum is a leading online retailer of bathroom products with a strong brand and market-leading product. We are pleased to be investing in the future of the business and look forward to welcoming all of Victoria Plum’s employees into AHK Designs.” Creditors are advised to
contact
VPAdministration@uk.eycom for more details.
What the company owed and to whom...
WHEN VICTORIA Plum went into administration, it owed millions to suppliers, customers and installers.
Administrator Ernst & Young revealed that the company’s new owner, AHK Designs, paid £7.8 million in a pre-pack deal for stock, brand, IP, plant and machinery with all 345 employees remaining. However, the sale of Victorian Plum to AHK Designs leaves behind debts of £24.3m with, Ernst & Young says,
The kbbreview Podcast up for top award
THE KBBREVIEW Podcast has been shortlisted for one of the biggest awards in the UK publishing industry.
Now in its 10th series, the show is one of four finalists for ‘Podcast Of The Year’
in the Professional Publishers
Association (PPA) annual awards. It is the second time the show has
been shortlisted, the first was in 2020 at the height of the lockdown where it went on to win. “We’re so pleased to be finalists again for this amazing award,” said podcast host and kbbreview managing editor Andrew Davies. “Podcasts are such an incredible medium for connecting people and developing community, and for KBB independent retail, it’s so important to have focus points for discussion and debate.” Earlier this year, The kbbreview Podcast was also a finalist in the 2023 Publisher Podcast Awards alongside massive names such as the BBC,
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“no prospect of any funds becoming available to unsecured creditors”. Shockingly, Victoria Plum customers are owed £2.25m with just under £222,000 in unpaid refunds, £665,000 in unfulfilled trade orders and £1.36m in unfulfilled design and installation orders. And 72 separate installation companies are owed a total of £483,000. Some of the biggest brands in bathrooms have also been stung for
tens of thousands or in some cases hundreds of thousands of pounds. Some of the biggest individual creditors are Chinese suppliers who, in total, are owed over £1.8m. According to Ernst & Young, the single biggest unsecured creditor is Google – owed over £3.6m. Endless tried to sell Victoria Plum in late 2021 but no offers materialised and “challenging trading conditions” led to a £1.9m loss in the year to February 2023.
Villeroy & Boch names Schupp to succeed Göring as CEO
Financial Times, Evening Standard and Telegraph. It was shortlisted in the ‘Best B2B Podcast’ category. “We may be approaching our 200th episode but the show is getting stronger and stronger,” Davies said. “It’s a fantastic part of the kbbreview portfolio alongside the print magazine, the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards and
kbbreview.com.” Winners are announced on Novem- ber 24 at a ceremony in London.
VILLEROY & Boch has announced that Gabi Schupp will take over from Frank Göring as chief executive with effect from January 1, 2024. Schupp previously headed up the Dining & Lifestyle Division of the company and over five years worked with her management team to put the division on “sound, sustainable ground, both structurally and commercially”, resulting in a significant rise in sales during in a “challenging environment”. Commenting on her appointment, Andreas Schmid, chairman of the Villeroy & Boch supervisory board, said: “I am very happy that by appointing Gabi Schupp we have a highly successful and skilled manager from within our own ranks to take on this great responsibility. She has many years of wide-ranging experience leading global brands and managing complex mergers and acquisitions processes, which means she has what it takes to continue the growth trajectory launched by Frank Göring and bring the integration of Ideal Standard to a successful conclusion.”
Before Schupp joined Villeroy & Boch, she spent more than 20 years in a variety of executive roles at Procter & Gamble. Current CEO Frank Göring’s contract will end on December 31 this year. In September, Villeroy & Boch signed a deal to acquire Ideal Standard thereby creating a combined company that will rank as one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of bathroom products.
• November 2023
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