Sharps Bedrooms

Last updated
Sharps Bedrooms
Company type Private company
Industry Manufacturer
Retail
Founded1973;52 years ago (1973)
Headquarters
Bilston, West Midlands
,
United Kingdom
Key people
Kevin Smith (Managing Director)
ProductsFitted Bedroom
Home Office Furniture
OwnerEpiris LLP
Number of employees
600
Website www.sharps.co.uk

Sharps Bedrooms is a British privately owned fitted bedroom and home office retailer and manufacturer. The company has 31 showrooms across the United Kingdom, with its factory and headquarters in Bilston, West Midlands. [1]

Contents

History

Sharps was established in the 1970s in Leicester as a custom bedroom furniture manufacturer and installer. [2] The company was purchased by Michael Ashcroft's group; Hawley Leisure in 1979. [3] Hawley merged Sharps with the newly-acquired Kean and Scott in 1980, [4] a business which would go on to takeover Dolphin Showers and Alpine Double Glazing owner Alpine Holdings from James Gulliver in April 1983, [5] [6] Kitchens Direct in April 1984 [7] and Moben Group in October 1984. [8] [9]

The merged group had a number of underperforming businesses and by December 1984, Kean and Scott had put former Moben group companies; Cold Shield Windows and Mulberry Home Improvements into the hands of the receivers. [10] A rearrangement of Michael Ashcroft's companies saw Kean and Scott come under the control of Henlys Group in 1987 [11] and renamed Home Improvement Holdings in 1989. [12] This proved not to be the last ownership change of the 1980s for the group with the group being purchased by Kitchens Direct founder Stephen Boler in May 1989. [13]

Boler renamed the business Limelight [14] in 1991 [15] and took the company public in a disastrous floatation in November 1996 which saw the firms value plunge from £175 million to £40 million by March 1998. [16]

The company, by now comprising Sharps, Moben, Kitchens Direct, Dolphin and Portland Consevatories (which Boler had separately acquired) [17] , was taken private again in a management buyout in 2000 to become HomeForm Group. [18] HomeForm went into a 'pre-pack' administration in April 2007 which saw the business purchased by US private equity firm; Sun Capital Partners. [19]

In June 2011, Homeform entered administration and Sharps was repurchased by Sun Capital Partners the following month. [20] [21] By June 2019, the company's annual turnover exceeded £100 million. [22] In June 2021, Sharps Bedrooms was purchased by Epiris. [23]

Products

Sharps Bedrooms designs and manufactures fitted bedroom, living and home office furniture. [24]

Sharps Bedrooms was a subsidiary of a private equity fund managed by Sun European Partners, the European arm of Sun Capital Partners, an American-based private investment firm. Since 2019, Sharps Bedrooms has been owned by Epiris, a private equity firm based in London. [25]

References

  1. ↑ "An Affiliate of Sun European Partners, LLP Acquires Moben, Dolphin, Sharps & Kitchens Direct – The HomeForm Group". businesswire.com. 10 April 2007. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  2. ↑ "Sharps Bedroom Design". Leicester Mercury. 1 October 1974. p. 23.
  3. ↑ "Hawley Leisure Spreads its Wings". The Birmingham Post. 1 March 1979. p. 9.
  4. ↑ "American Foden's Bid Gets Warm Welcome". Birmingham Evening Mail. 23 September 1980. p. 26.
  5. ↑ Leece, William (8 March 1983). "Alpine Board Back Bid". Daily Post. p. 15.
  6. ↑ Watson, Ian (10 July 1983). "The New £300m Gulliver Giant". Sunday Telegraph. p. 23.
  7. ↑ "Hawley on Buying Spree". Manchester Evening News. 9 April 1984. p. 57.
  8. ↑ "Troubled Moben in £7m Takeover". Manchester Evening News. 17 September 1984. p. 20.
  9. ↑ "Moben Bid Unconditional". Daily Post. 17 October 1984. p. 18.
  10. ↑ Rimmer, Michael (7 December 1984). "Moben Chief Quits as Cold Shield Closes". Manchester Evening News. p. 42.
  11. ↑ Peston, Robert (13 January 1987). "Hawley's £255m Sale to Canadian Affiliate". The Independent. p. 21.
  12. ↑ "Kitchens Gain for JWT". Manchester Evening News. 19 April 1989. p. 25.
  13. ↑ "Business Buy-Back". The Rochdale Observer. 6 May 1989. p. 10.
  14. ↑ Manning, Clinton (29 November 1994). "£35m Home Improvement". Daily Mirror. p. 42.
  15. ↑ Slingsby, Helen (1 October 1996). "Limelight Set to Take Centre Stage for Float". Evening Standard. p. 33.
  16. ↑ Slingsby, Helen (9 March 1998). "Limelight in Red But Backer Keeps Faith". Evening Standard. p. 32.
  17. ↑ Rimmer, Michael (5 April 1989). "Boler Going Direct Again". Manchester Evening News. p. 27.
  18. ↑ Davies, Ross (11 August 2000). "Bosses Splash Out £57m for Limelight". Evening Standard. p. 38.
  19. ↑ "US buyer snaps up Moben kitchens". telegraph.co.uk. 7 April 2007. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  20. ↑ "Homeform to enter administration". bbc.co.uk. 23 June 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  21. ↑ "Sharps is saved, but Homeform administration makes 557 redundant". diyweek.net. 7 July 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  22. ↑ "TURNOVER PASSES £100M AT BEDROOM RETAILER". insidermedia.com. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  23. ↑ Foerster, Jan-Henrik (21 June 2021). "Sun European Partners Sells Furniture Group Sharps to Epiris". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  24. ↑ "Create The Perfect Dual Office Space". www.sharps.co.uk. December 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  25. ↑ "Epiris announces the acquisition of Sharps". Epiris. Epiris. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
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