Brintons Carpets has been bought out by The Carlyle Group in a deal worth £40 million, just two months after announcing a search for new funding desperately needed to keep it going.
As part of the deal, US private equity group Carlyle will inherit £20 million in debt and invest £20 million into the family-run carpet manufacturer.
The business was sold through a pre-pack administration deal, however, without seeking the approval of the shareholders first.
Chairman of the Brintons’ family council, Guy Burnell said, “We were completely kept out of the picture. The board promised us that the business would remain solvent and in the end it was sold from under our feet through a pre-pack administration without shareholder approval.”
Ian Jackson, the director of Carlyle Strategic Partners returned with, “Brintons was losing business and cash, and had been for a considerable amount of time. If a deal had not been done on the Friday the business would not have survived on Monday.”
Set up by William Brinton in Kidderminster in 1783, the firm makes carpets for the domestic and commercial markets, and has about 1,670 staff across the globe. Prestigious hotels including the St Pancras Renaissance hotel and the new Queen Mary use Brintons carpets.
