Subsequent, the FTSE-100 retail behemoth, is amongst a pack of suitors contemplating a brand new 12 months swoop to purchase LK Bennett, the struggling trend retailer.
Sky Information has learnt that Subsequent is weighing a cut-price supply to purchase LK Bennett’s model and different mental property belongings because it prepares to name in directors.
Retail business sources stated that Subsequent was unlikely to pursue any supply involving LK Bennett’s small property of stores.
Marks & Spencer and TFG London, the group which owns Part Eight, White Stuff and Hobbs, had been additionally among the many events tipped by analysts as contenders to think about an acquisition of the ailing model.
A proposal from Subsequent would mirror its technique of buying distressed retailers lately.
It has purchased manufacturers reminiscent of Cath Kidston, Joules and Seraphine, the maternitywear retailer, whereas it’s presently inspecting the acquisition of family-owned footwear retailer Russell & Bromley.
LK Bennett filed a discover of intention to nominate directors earlier this week, ten days after Sky Information revealed that the corporate confronted collapse because it urgently sought a purchaser.
Based by Linda Bennett in 1990, LK Bennett has been working with advisers at Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) in current weeks.
At one stage, LK Bennett was among the many most recognisable manufacturers on the excessive road, increasing to 200 branded shops within the UK and abroad markets together with China, Russia and the US.
In its house promote it now trades from simply 9 standalone shops, with an extra 13 listed as concessions on its web site.
The model is presently owned by Byland UK, an organization established in 2019 for the aim of rescuing LK Bennett from a earlier brush with insolvency.
Byland UK was fashioned by Rebecca Feng, who ran LK Bennett’s Chinese language franchises.
On the time of that deal, Ms Feng stated: Ms Feng stated: “Below our plan, the enterprise will proceed to function out of the UK, trying to keep the long-standing and undoubted heritage of the model.
“This can be achieved via a mix of working with high quality British design, and the enterprise’s present provide chain.”
Accounts for LK Bennett Style for the interval ended January 27, 2024 present the corporate made a post-tax lack of £3.5m on turnover of £42.1m.
The figures confirmed a steep decline in gross sales from £48.8m in 2023.
Ms Bennett based the eponymous chain by opening a retailer in Wimbledon, southwest London, in 1990, and promised to “convey a little bit of Bond Road to the excessive road”.
Her eye for design earned her the nickname ‘queen of the kitten heel’ and noticed her merchandise worn by the Princess of Wales and Theresa Could, the previous prime minister.
In 2008, Ms Bennett offered the enterprise for an estimated £100m to a consortium led by the non-public fairness agency Phoenix Fairness Companions.
She retained a stake after which purchased again the remaining fairness in 2017.
The corporate’s administration in 2019 resulted within the closure of 15 shops.
Subsequent declined to remark, whereas an M&S spokeswoman stated it was not contemplating a bid for LK Bennett.
