Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
KPMG today issued an update on the administration at PCS Brands Ltd.
PCS Brands (Prep-Cook-Serve) Ltd was a distributor and manufacturer of cutlery, kitchenware and bakeware products formerly known as Oneida International. It had a number of British brands including Viners, George Wilkinson, Mermaid and RTA on the consumer side, and Le Buffet and Longlife in foodservice, and its own retail chain under the Viners Cook & Dine brand. The businesss was acquired by a subsidiary of Trillium GP Ltd in August with a view to returning the £11m-turnover group to profitability.
But on October 30, Will Wright and Paul Flint from KPMG were appointed joint administrators to PCS Brands Ltd. The company, which employed around 300 staff, operated from a number of production facilities in the UK located in the West Midlands, Lancashire, Norfolk and Yorkshire with a head office in London – plus its retail division via 30 outlets in the UK, and one in the Netherlands.
Administrators were hoping to find a buyer for the business and retained a skeleton workforce at the various production and warehousing facilities whilst stock levels were realised. A total of 104 staff were made redundant upon appointment of administrators.
At the time, Paul Flint said: “Unfortunately PCS Brands Ltd has experienced significant trading difficulties for a while and has been unable to sustain the business resulting in our appointment as administrators. The business has a number of retail and wholesale outlets across the UK and we are very keen to hear from anyone who may be interested in purchasing all or part of the business and its stock. We have retained staff to help us fulfil current orders and support customers during this time, but have unfortunately had to make some redundancies across the business. We would encourage any interested parties to contact the joint administrators as soon as possible.”
But a statement released to www.HousewaresLive.net today by KPMG said: “As per the creditors report issued last month, despite the best efforts of the administrators, it has not been possible to sell the entire PCS business as a going concern. We have been able to sell certain parts of the business and its assets which have realised funds for creditors, and are in discussions regarding the sale of the remaining brands associated with the George Wilkinson division of the business, and ad hoc fixtures and fittings located at the head office.
“To date, we have sold the intellectual property rights, goodwill and stock relating to the Viners brand to Liverpool-based Rayware as part of a £1.6m deal; and significant plant, machinery and tooling from the George Wilkinson division to What More UK for £0.5 million. Administrators have also been able to sell the RTA wine rack division of PCS Brands Ltd to RTA Global Ltd (the deal was completed on December 5 for £322,449), and the Samuel Groves division of the group to the U Group, in a sale which was completed on December 12 for £215,000.
“We now anticipate that trading from the retail outlets, which has already started to be wound down, will in all likelihood cease in its entirety over the next 1 – 2 weeks. Thereafter, any remaining stock both wholesale and retail will be sold to the highest bidder on a one off basis.”
