Card Factory in £350 million sale
The Card Factory, owned by entrepreneur Dean Hoyle, is on the verge of being sold to London private equity house Charterhouse in a £350 million deal which could be completed later today. It is believed that Charterhouse is on the verge of taking a majority stake in the operation and will leave the existing management team to run the operation in the future. Dean Hoyle, the chairman of this town football club, is believed to own around 90% the share capital and is in line for a massive windfall if the deal goes through as expected.
The company itself has 480 stores, 4,500 members of staff and a customer turnover of over 100 million a year. It is believed that the company has been up for sale since November last year when a number of potential buyers stepped forward to acquire what has been a very successful and a very lucrative operation. In the year ended 31 January 2009 the company turned over £167 million with pretax profits of £29 million. The very fact that turnover increased from £90 million the year before and profitability from £17 million is testimony to the strength and success of the business.
There are few businesses in the UK which have performed so well in the midst of what has been the worst recession in living history.
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