Analysis: Bathstore at a glance, following management buyout

No comments

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.