Next has agreed to buy fashion and homeware brand Cath Kidston out of administration.
The omnichannel retailer paid £8.5mn for Cath Kidston’s brand name, domain names and intellectual property in a pre-pack deal.
The cathkidston.com domain will also be licensed back to administrators, for a period of up to 12 weeks to clear stock, prior to the brand’s relaunch under the ownership of Next.
However, part of the deal includes the closure of its remaining stores after they sell any remaining stock, resulting in some of its 125 employees being made redundant.
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Cath Kidston has shops in London, Ashford, Cheshire Oaks and York.
Zelf Hussain and Rachael Wilkinson of PwC was appointed as joint administrators of CK Acquisitions, the registered company behind Cath Kidston.
“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,” Hussain said.
“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.”
The news follows Cath Kidston owner Hilco Capital placing the retailer up for sale in February, just eight months after purchasing.
Next also recently acquired struggling high street brands Joules and Made.com, after they both went into administration last year.
