Sky News has a
report on three of the bidders for Oddbins, including Simon Baile who is said to be in advanced talks with Gordon Brothers Europe. The other bidders are apparently one of Oddbins' suppliers and a restructuring firm. Gordon Brothers were bought in by First Quench's administrators in late 2009 and assisted in closing the stores.
See here. Gordon Brothers claim that 'the deal was overwhelmingly successful' and that 'this meant that the maximum possible cash recovery was achieved for the creditors'.
I thought that many of the First Quench creditors had yet to see a penny but may be I'm mistaken. From their report on First Quench it looks like it might be a question of whether Gordon Brothers can close down the remaining Oddbins stores even faster than the First Quench ones were.
Is anyone else wondering why Young/Baile have waited so long to secure a rescue package? Surely they should have been doing this months ago. Seems almost too good to be true that they could regain control without their debts!
ReplyDeleteThat link to the Gordon Brothers website is a bit mangled. Here's the clean version
ReplyDelete//www.gordonbrotherseurope.com/en/case-study/first-quench-retailing/