talking shop
ProCook’s store in the Worcestershire market town of Evesham
Monday February 4 2019 THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM
ProCook acquires Steamer Trading
Daniel O’Neill, owner of housewares chain ProCook, discusses his company’s purchase of rival retailer Steamer Trading Cookshop
Trading Cookshop, which was founded 35 years ago. As part of the sales process, Steve Absolom and
E
Will Wright of KPMG LLP were appointed joint administrators of Steamer Trading Limited on January 9. KPMG said that following its appointment, the joint administrators completed an agreement to sell 27 of Steamer Trading Cookshop’s 38 stores and the majority of the business and assets to ProCook. The 27 Steamer Trading Cookshop stores acquired
by ProCook are: Bath, Beverley, Bishop’s Stortford, Brentwood, Brighton, Bristol, Bury St Edmunds, Cardiff, Chester, Chichester, Cirencester, Dorchester, Eastbourne, Guildford, Harrogate, Hereford, Horsham, Lewes, Lymington, Northallerton, Saffron Walden, Southampton, St Albans, Stamford, Thame, Truro and Witney. A further central London store in Knightsbridge and its accompanying cookery school - trading under the Divertimenti brand - has been acquired by Steamer Trading Cookshop founder Ben Phillips. The Divertimenti business joined the Steamer Trading Cookshop portfolio in March 2016. Both deals, the values of which have not been disclosed, see 332 jobs being secured. The remaining 10 ‘underperforming’ Steamer
Trading Cookshop stores which were not part of the sale closed immediately, resulting in 79 job losses. Those branches are Battle, Heathfield, Westerham, Dorking, Bluewater, Taunton, Wells, Cambridge,
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housewareslive.net
arlier this month, housewares retailer ProCook announced the news that it had acquired the specialist chain Steamer
Glasgow and Bournemouth. KPMG UK director Nick Holloway, who led the
sale, said: “We are delighted that we have been able to rescue such a long established business, including a high proportion of stores, and preserve a large number of jobs, especially given the current economic pressures faced by retailers across the UK. The trade sale complements the existing ProCook business and further increases its high street presence.”
“We are excited
to grow both ProCook and Steamer
Trading Cookshop to maximise the
synergies between both brands”
ProCook was founded by owner Daniel O’Neill in
1995. With 37 stores, an ecommerce business, and an international presence in eight European markets, it is headquartered in Gloucestershire. A typical ProCook store is 1,500sq ft (but the
retailer has several garden centre concessions which carry the full range but are slightly smaller). The 37
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HousewaresLive.net
stores are in Ashford, Banbridge, Basingstoke, Bideford, Birmingham, Braintree, Bridgend, Brighton, Cardiff, Castleford, Chatham, Cheshire, Chesterfield, Dalton Park, Doncaster, Evesham, Farnham, Fleetwood, Gloucester, Gretna, Hatfield, Huntingdon, Livingston, Manchester, Mansfield, Morpeth, Norwich, Nottingham, Spalding, Stockport, Street, Swindon, Talke, Trentham, Wembley, Widnes and York. The company, which claims to be the first to sell
cookware sets by direct mail in the UK, supplies kitchen and dining ware with savings of up to 50% compared with other leading brands, by producing and delivering them direct to the customer with no middleman. It designs and manufactures around 1,500 exclusive products, which span the cookware, kitchenware and tableware categories. Best sellers include the ProCook Gourmet Non- Stick cookware range and the ProCook Professional X50 kitchen knife range. The Gourmet Non-Stick range features strain and pour functionality and a thick durable non-stick coating. It is suitable for use on all hobs and comes with a 10-year guarantee. Prices start at £21 for a 20cm frying pan and run up to £329 for a 12-piece cookware set. The Professional X50 kitchen knives feature German stainless steel blades with a full tang construction and triple riveted, contoured micarta handles. The range is guaranteed for 25 years and comes in many set combinations. Prices start at £16 for a paring knife. As an own-brand retailer, ProCook is able to offer
a customisable set service for all cookware and knife ranges and flexibility on offer pricing. It also runs a
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twitter.com/Housewaresnews January/February 2019
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