Paperchase

Last updated

Paperchase
Company type Private
Industry Retail
Founded1968  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Founders
  • Judith Cash
  • Eddie Pond
Headquarters London, England, UK
Products Stationery, greeting cards
Revenue£106,949,000 (2015)
Parent Tesco
Website paperchase.com

Paperchase is an international chain of stationery stores which was established in the United Kingdom but has since expanded into Europe, the USA and United Arab Emirates. As well as stand alone stores, in the UK there were concessions in selected Selfridges, House of Fraser and Next stores. The company went into administration on 30 January 2023 and Tesco purchased the brand and intellectual property, but not the stores, on 31 January 2023. [1]

Contents

History

Paperchase was founded by two art students, Judith Cash and Eddie Pond, around 1968. The company went through various owners before receiving investment from W H Smith in 1985; it continued to expand and in 1996 became Paperchase Products Ltd., [2] having been bought by the existing management with investment from a venture capital fund.

In 2004 Borders Group Inc. bought out Graphite Capital, [3] [4] and the company grew internationally within the Borders network.

In 2007 Borders sold a majority stake in the UK and Irish division of Borders book stores to Risk Capital for £10 million. [5]

In May 2008, the Borders Group announced it was considering selling its 97% share to one of either HgCapital, Isis Equity Partners or Change Capital, [6] with W H Smith interested in putting in a £50 million bid – 12 years after selling it at £1 million. [7]

As a result, the Paperchase company lost a large presence on the British high street as there was a Paperchase concession within every UK Borders. The UK division of Borders separated from its parent and the owner of Paperchase in 2007, and all Borders stores closed on 22 December 2009. To replace these lost UK retail sites, Paperchase concessions were formed in a number of HMV and Waterstones stores during 2010. [8]

In 2010, a management buy-out was completed [9] leaving the company owned by Primary Capital Partners LLP and its board of directors.

In September 2010, Paperchase launched an online store, built on the Venda ecommerce platform.[ citation needed ]

Borders Group Inc. closed all of its stores in February 2011, 19 years after the Borders brothers sold the business and 16 years after becoming a public company. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which led to the closure of 399 stores and the liquidation of assets.[ citation needed ]

As of January 2013, the company had over 130 retail points of sale, a mix of concessions and standalone stores. These were primarily based in the UK, with several in Dubai and a few in Denmark, The Netherlands, France and Germany. One of their first flagship stores was on Tottenham Court Road and was known as 'Paperchase Heaven' because of its location, size and range of products. [10] A new store opened in the White Rose Centre in Leeds in June 2013, and another flagship store was opened in March 2013 at Buchanan Street in Glasgow. [11] [12]

In January 2021, Paperchase was on the brink of administration after most of its stores were closed over the Christmas period because of COVID-19. The firm filed a notice to appoint administrators to give them breathing space while it worked out a rescue plan. At that time the company had 127 stores and about 1,500 employees. [13] Later that month it was announced that Paperchase would be purchased by Primera Capital through a legal entity, Aspen Phoenix Newco Limited. [14]

In August 2022, Paperchase was sold again to a private investment firm led by the retail investor Steve Curtis. The company went into administration on 30 January 2023 and Tesco purchased the brand and intellectual property, but not its 106 stores, on 31 January 2023, leaving the future of 820 staff in doubt. [1]

Closure

In February 2023, it was announced that no buyer had been found for the rest of the business. As a result, all 106 remaining stores were to close, and 900 staff were to be made redundant. [15] The web store shut down on 17 February, [15] and the last physical shops closed on 3 April 2023. [16]

Controversy

In February 2010, the company was accused of stealing artwork created by an independent British artist, [17] Hidden Eloise. [18] An artist working for the agency Gather No Moss eventually admitted tracing the artwork. [19]

In November 2017, the company issued an apology for running an advert for free wrapping paper in the Daily Mail on Saturday 18 November, following a campaign by the group Stop Funding Hate. [20] Journalists Julia Hartley-Brewer and Piers Morgan condemned the decision. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borders Group</span> American book retailer, 1971 to 2011

Borders Group, Inc. was an American multinational book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders and Waldenbooks stores.

Tesco plc is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen in Hackney, London in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morrisons</span> British supermarket chain

Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, and one in Gibraltar. The company is headquartered in Bradford, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debenhams</span> Defunct British department store chain, 1778–2021

Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland, and is still operating as a franchise in seven Middle East countries. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish department store chain Magasin du Nord. In its final years, its headquarters were within the premises of its flagship store in Oxford Street, London. The range of goods sold included middle-to-high-end clothing, beauty, household items, and furniture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woolworths (United Kingdom)</span> British retail company (1909–2009)

Woolworths was a British high-street retail chain. At its height, it operated as Woolworths Group PLC, which included other companies such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK, and book and resource distributor Bertram Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Home Stores</span> Former British department store chain

British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electronics, entertainment, convenience groceries and fragrance and beauty products.

HHGL Limited, trading as Homebase, is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre with stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the company was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006, until it was sold to the Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers in January 2016.

Habitat is a brand of household furnishings in the United Kingdom and the main homewares brand within the Sainsbury's group.

Arcadia Group Ltd was a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London, England. It was best known for being the previous parent company of British Home Stores (BHS), Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, Wallis and Warehouse. At its peak, the group had more than 2,500 outlets in the UK and concessions in UK department stores and several hundred franchises operated internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maplin (retailer)</span> British electronics retailer

Maplin Electronics is the trading name of an online retailer of electronic goods in the United Kingdom and Ireland launched in 2019, using the brand of the former company Maplin Electronics Limited, which operated from 1972 to 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fresh & Easy</span> Former chain of grocery stores in the western United States

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was a chain of grocery stores in the Western United States, headquartered in El Segundo, California. It was a subsidiary of Tesco, the world's third largest retailer, based in the United Kingdom, until November 2013 when it was purchased by Yucaipa Companies. It had plans for rapid growth – the first stores opened in November 2007 and, after a pause in the second quarter of 2008, the opening program recommenced. While there were over 200 stores in Arizona, California, and Nevada by December 2012, Tesco confirmed in April 2013 that it was pulling out of the US market, at a reported cost of £1.2 billion. On September 10, 2013, Tesco announced they were transferring ownership and operations of more than 150 stores to supermarket-owner Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies group. At the beginning of October 2013, Fresh & Easy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. bankruptcy court. The sale cost Tesco £150m, taking the total cost of its failed US venture to nearly £2bn. On October 23, 2015, Yucaipa announced that it would close all Fresh & Easy stores.

Hobbycraft is an arts and crafts superstore retail chain in the United Kingdom. It is currently owned by investment group Bridgepoint.

Borders (UK) Ltd., also known as Borders & Books etc., was established as a Borders Group subsidiary in 1998, and in 2007 became independent of the US parent company. At its peak after separation from the US parent, it traded from its 41 Borders and 28 BOOKS etc. shops with over one million square feet of retail space, taking around 8% of the retail bookselling market. In 2008 and 2009 the store numbers were reduced before the collapse of the chain. They also operated one single branch in Ireland, but closed this early in 2009. On 26 November 2009 it was announced that Borders (UK) had gone into administration. All stores closed on 24 December 2009.

Dobbies Garden Centres Limited is a British chain of garden centres based in Lasswade, Scotland. It is the biggest garden centre operator in the United Kingdom, operating over 77 stores, some of which it acquired from the previous biggest garden centre chain, Wyevale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adams Kids</span> British childrens clothing retailer

Adams Kids was a children's clothing retailer, based in Paddington, London in the United Kingdom.

Barratts was a brand of high street shoe shops operating in the UK and Ireland. The Barratts shoes brand traded from 100 UK and Ireland stores.

Zavvi is an online retailer of entertainment products, including Blu-ray discs, collectables, homeware and toys. Originally a physical retailer, the brand has been online only since it was bought from administration by The Hut Group (THG) in 2009. In July 2023 THG confirmed the sale of its OnDemand division, including Zavvi, to its existing leadership team, with financial backing from investment firm Gordon Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Entertainer (retailer)</span>

The Entertainer (Amersham) Limited is a British toy retailer, founded in 1981 by Catherine and Gary Grant. It is based in Amersham, the town of its first location.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Żabka (convenience store)</span> Chain of Polish shops

Żabka Polska, better known as Żabka is a chain of convenience stores in Poland and Romania. There are at least 9,000 manned and unmanned stores across Poland, including at least 500 in Warsaw and over 340 in the Tricity area, as of September 2024. Some Żabka stores are located in the Czech Republic and owned by the Czech branch of the UK retail giant Tesco plc. The retail turnover was about €650 million in 2010. As of 2022, Żabka had more than 15.5 million customers.

The Mander Centre is a major shopping centre in Wolverhampton City Centre, in Wolverhampton, England, developed by Manders Holdings Plc, the paint, inks and property conglomerate, between 1968 and 1974. The site occupies four and a half acres comprising the old Georgian works and offices of the Mander family firm, founded in 1773, as well as the site of the former Queens Arcade, which had stood on the site since 1902.

References

  1. 1 2 "Paperchase: Tesco buys stationery brand but not its shops". BBC News. 31 January 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  2. Business Week
  3. "Graphite Capital sells Paperchase to Borders Group" . Retrieved 13 October 2008.
  4. Woolner, Aaron (14 July 2004). "Borders Buys Paperchase". The Independent . London. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
  5. Financial Times 20 May 2008
  6. Financial Times 20 May 2008
  7. "Swann eyes Paperchase". The Daily Telegraph . 18 May 2008. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022.
  8. Financial Times 7 May 2010
  9. PR Newswire 13 July 2010
  10. "Paperchase Tottenham Court Road, London - Made In Place Design". Made In Place. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  11. "Paperchase | White Rose Shopping Centre". white-rose.co.uk. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  12. "Major city retail development opens". 22 March 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  13. "Paperchase on the brink of administration". BBC News. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  14. "Paperchase rescue safeguards 1,000 jobs". BBC News. 28 January 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  15. 1 2 Morgan, Aoife (22 February 2023). "Paperchase to close all 106 stores as no buyer found". Retail Gazette. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  16. Duffield, Charlie (30 March 2023). "Paperchase to close all remaining stores next week". Evening Standard. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  17. "The Hidden World of Eloise".
  18. Green, Chris (11 February 2010). "Paperchase forced to deny it copied artist's work" . The Independent . London. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  19. "The designer apologises".
  20. "Paperchase apologises for Daily Mail promotion after online backlash". The Guardian . 20 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  21. "Paperchase 'sorry' for Daily Mail offer". BBC News. 20 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.