Next acquires Cath Kidston out of administration
Next has agreed to buy the Cath Kidston fashion and homeware brand out of administration.
The retailer has snapped up Cath Kidston’s brand, website and intellectual property in a £8.5 million deal.
The news follows Zelf Hussain and Rachael Wilkinson of PwC being appointed as joint administrators of CK Acquisitions, the registered company behind Cath Kidston.
Hussain said: “Cath Kidston is a well loved lifestyle brand founded in 1993 and I am pleased to say that it has been bought by Next who will make sure it continues to flower under their ownership.
“The company has over recent years navigated through incredibly challenging market conditions including the pandemic restrictions, and most recently the decline in consumer spending driven by cost of living pressures and rising costs.
“In the short term its four stores will continue to remain open whilst operations are wound down. Sadly, there will be redundancies during this period of wind down and we will continue to support the staff throughout this period.”
Cath Kidston employs 125 people and has stores in London, Ashford, Cheshire Oaks and York. These will remain open to trade down stock before closing permanently.
Meanwhile, the cathkidston.com domain will be licenced back to the administrators for a period of up to 12 weeks and will then be relaunched under Next’s ownership.
