A swag of high profile retail chains with hundreds of stores between them have hit the market, with a number of interested buyers already circling.
Fusion Retail Brands, new owner of the former Colorado Group stable, has confirmed it has engaged local firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to oversee the sale of its brands including Colorado, Williams, Mathers, Diana Ferrari, and Jag.
As previously reported on ragtrader.com.au, the brands were rescued by Fusion Retail Brands in a management buyout following the collapse of former parent company the Colorado Group in 2011.
Fusion Retail Brands has been steadily priming the brands for sale since the purchase, with major relaunches of all brands and their web platforms currently under way and new campaigns and re-brands already executed for Colorado and Jag.
Commenting on the imminent sale, Fusion Retail Brands CEO Don Grover – who was appointed 11 months ago to lead a turnaround of the business – said this was “always the plan”.
He also revealed that the group has, to date, received a total of four offers from separate companies for the complete Fusion Retail Brands stable.
“We are working on a turnaround of the business at the moment and a few businesses have seen this as an opportunity and they have made offers to the group,” he said.
“Our owners were always going to be looking for an exit, and for them this is a good time to consider it in light of these approaches that they've had. So that's what we are going to do. Having new owners is not necessarily a bad thing, it's an opportunity for the business to grow – and that was always what I was employed to do.
“I think people can also see quite clearly in brands like Jag that there is a turnaround strategy. And although more time will be required to ensure the improvement of performance across all of these brands, the early stages of that development are well under way. This is not a distress sale, it's an opportunity.”
Grover said PricewaterhouseCoopers will be assisting in the mergers and acquisitions area, and supporting the company in its sale processes by representing Fusion Retail Brands in discusions with interested parties.
“It's quite a normal process, and particularly normal for a company like ours, coming out of receivership with owners who are not there for the long haul. So we are hoping for a tight process, but in the meantime we will continue with each brands' turnaround strategy – it's business as usual back at the ranch.”
Fusion Retail Brands is a multi-brand retail and wholesale business employing over 2,000 people across 271 retail outlets Australia-wide.