The future of Worcestershire-based Brintons Carpets looks uncertain, as it has reportedly defaulted on its banking covenants with Lloyds Banking Group.
Directors of the company have appointed PriceWaterhouseCoopers to seek an investment of around £20 million required to keep the business running. It is thought that an injection of venture capital is preferred, but, failing that, a trade sale of the entire business might not be out of the question.
The case for a company sale is further underlined by a succession problem. The Brintons family has been manufacturing carpets in Kidderminster since 1783. The company’s chairman, 69-year-old Michael Brinton, is the sixth generation of the family firm, and a former president of The Carpet Foundation and of the Export Council of the British Carpet Manufacturers Association.
However, his children have broken with tradition and are not involved with the business. Michael’s eldest son used to work for Brintons but now runs his own business, his other son is a photographer and his daughter works in fashion.
Brintons Carpets manufactures carpets for both commercial and residential markets and counts the Queen, the Kremlin, 10 Downing Street and the White House as clients. Ten years ago, Brintons won the world's biggest-ever order for woven carpet, from Hong Kong airport.
The latest filed accounts to July 2009 showed a loss of £9 million, a sharp downturn from the previous year, which recorded a profit of £535,000.
The connection between the carpet industry and the housing market is well known, and as Michael Brinton once commented, "Every time there's a recession, carpets get hard hit”. The firm has also been a victim of changing fashion, as
wooden flooring has been displacing carpets for many homeowners over the past decade.
