Smouha buys Hill Textiles

Smouha Fabrics, one of Australia's largest textile wholesalers, has bought Hill Textiles for an undisclosed sum.
The Stone brothers, who owned Hill, had decided to close the company at the end of October. Staff had been given a timetable of retrenchments and stocks were being run down. Then Smouha Textiles made an offer to purchase Hill - which was accepted.
Managing director of Smouha Fabrics, Philip Smouha said that the deal took effect on September 1st, but as far as the trade is concerned there would be no apparent change in the marketing of either company.
"Hill Textiles is an excellent company, trading profitably," he said. "The last thing we want to do is change that. It will continue under the management of the Stone brothers as before."
Keith Stone will be more involved in the day to day running of the company than Alan Stone. Keith Stone in particular did not want to retire but both brothers were reluctant to commit increasing amounts of capital to the company as it grew. The deal therefore suited them from both points of view.
The Stones will maintain the style of the business as a mix of cutting edge fashion fabrics and a growing involvement in supplying finished garments to fashion labels. The company will continue to operate from its two locations in NSW and maintain staff levels of around 21 employees. Its warehouse stays in the western suburb of Silverwater while showroom, sales and administration remains in Waterloo. In other states will maintain their network of full time sales agents.
During the time between the decision to close, and the Smouha offer, some staff members left Hill to seek other jobs. They include design development manager Jo Elliot who has joined Montgomery Textiles, while business development manager Colin Foy is in negotiations with a garment company.
According to Philip Smouha, the reason for the purchase of Hill was based on the outcome of the John Kaldor closure last year. Smouha expected to fill some of the gap left by Kaldor but received no additional business at all. He didn't want the same outcome if Hill closed.
Hill will be encouraged to compete against Smouha which also wholesales fashion textiles and is developing a short run China made garment supply business.
While none of the numbers involved in the transaction were revealed, trade sources place Hill's annual turnover between $10 and $15 million, which suggests a purchase price of around $5 million plus stock.