The online party supplies retailer founded by the parents of the Princess of Wales has been sold after collapsing into administration.
Party Pieces, founded in 1987 by Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, was bought out of administration on Thursday by the entrepreneur James Sinclair, who owns businesses including Teddy Tastic Bear Co Ltd.
It has not been disclosed how much Sinclair paid to buy the business and its assets in a pre-pack administration, first reported by Sky News.
Will Wright and Chris Pole from the financial restructuring firm Interpath Advisory were appointed joint administrators to Party Pieces on Thursday and immediately sold the business to Teddy Tastic Bear Co, which will also take on the company’s 12 employees.
James Sinclair is described on his personal website as “the founder and CEO of the Partyman group of companies”, including leisure and childcare businesses as well as outdoor attractions. His assets also include the Rossi ice-cream company, which has produced ice-cream in Essex since 1932.
Sinclair, whose website states that he started out in business as a teenage children’s entertainer, also offers two-day business masterclasses, with the next event scheduled to take place in September.
The sale of Party Pieces marks the end of the Middletons’ ownership of the business they founded in 1987, which had run into trouble in recent years.
While the couple are the shareholders in the business, it is not known if they are also creditors. Shareholders tend to receive very little, if anything, if a company is bought out of administration. The administrators of Party Pieces are required to report to creditors within eight weeks of the administration, setting out their proposals.
Carole Middleton has previously described how she was inspired to set up the company after failing to find suitable party supplies in the shops for Kate’s fifth birthday party. She subsequently started the business from the kitchen table at the family’s Berkshire home.
Party Pieces suffered a significant knock to trade during the Covid pandemic, which put a stop to parties and celebrations for months at a time.
Wright, head of restructuring at Interpath and joint administrator, said: “Party Pieces is a well-established brand with a proud British heritage, but like many other companies across the retail space, had been impacted profoundly by the effects of the pandemic and the ensuing restrictions on social gatherings.”
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Party Pieces made a loss of almost £286,000 after tax in 2021, according to its most recent accounts.
It said the loss resulted from continued investment in the company’s growth plans, including design of its own-brand product range and a push into overseas markets in the US, EU and Middle East, according to accounts filed with Companies House.
As a result, the Middletons and the business’s other director contacted Interpath in March to ask them to help them to refinance or find new sources of investment, or to look into selling the business.
Over the years, Party Pieces grew from creating imaginative parties for children to selling products ranging from party decorations and tableware to personalised gifts.