The home shopping business Express Gifts could be put up for sale by its owner Findel, which is carrying out a strategic review of its divisions.
Express Gifts, which owns the brands Health & Home, Ace and Studio, has yearly revenues of around £220 million with profits of £20 million.
Findel’s main business is educational supplies, which isn’t doing as well as the home shopping division. Findel has debts of around £310 million and recorded a hefty loss of £76 million in the last financial year after a round of acquisitions that did not pan out well. That and certain accounting irregularities have been behind a recent plunge in the share price.
The aim of the review is to stabilise these finances – a sell-off of non-core business units is likely to get serious consideration. Apart from home shopping, Findel also has medical supplies and healthcare divisions.
Waiting in the wings for the home shopping catalogue business are several large competitors including N Brown who will almost certainly be interested should Express Gifts be put on the market.
