Bathstore has been acquired in a management buy-out led by chief executive Gary Favell. Retail Week takes a glance at the retailer’s vital statistics.

  • Bought by endless in May 2012 for £15m. Endless injected £11m of working capital into the business following the acquisition and put it up for sale in January this year.
  • Broke into the black in the first 12 months of Endless’ ownership, delivering a profit of £3.3m in the year to July 2013 against a loss of £3.8m the year before.
  • Notched up total sales of £99m in the year to July 2013, up 10% from the year before.
  • Is led by former MFI boss Gary Favell, who is chief executive, and non-executive chairman Simon Burke, who was chairman at Hobbycraft and is also a former Hamleys chief executive.
  • Operates 170 stores and launched a fully transactional website in 2009. In 2012 online sales accounted for 10% of turnover. Bathstore also produces a catalogue.
  • The company was founded in 1988 as a plumbing and heating trade outlet in Croydon. It was bought by entrepreneurs Patrick Riley and Nico de Beer in 1999, who embarked on an ambitious expansion programme.
  • The business was known as Bathrooms Direct until 2002.
  • In June 2003 the business was acquired by builders’ merchant Wolseley. Under its ownership Bathstore’s shop numbers rose from more than 50 in 2003 to 182 by the end of 2007/08.
  • The retailer was hit by the economic crisis in 2008/09. As a result the company restructured, closing 19 stores and taking the total portfolio down to about 160.
  • Wolseley put Bathstore up for sale at the end of 2010 but the process was scrapped following poor trading over the peak January period. Sales fell 3.8% to £90.4m in 2011/12, compared with a peak of £144.2m in 2007/08.
  • Bathstore’s performance continued to deteriorate going into 2012, and the business was sold to Leeds-based turnaround group Endless.

Bathstore owner hires adviser to examine sale of the business