News: New owner for Rotherham's Clinton Cards store

The joint administrators of retailer, Clinton Cards have concluded the sale of this business to Lakeshore Lending Limited, a subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation. The sale comprises the brands and assets of Clinton Cards and 397 stores, including the outlet on College Street in Rotherham town centre.

American Greetings Corporation is a creator and manufacturer of greetings cards and was a major supplier to Clinton Cards in the UK. Clinton's was the UK's largest specialist retailer of greetings cards and related products with in excess of 750 stores and 2011 revenues of over £360m across its two retail brands, Clinton Cards and Birthdays.

The deal will preserve approximately 4,500 jobs across the UK but the final number of stores acquired will be dependent on negotiations with landlords at each respective location.

In May, Zolfo Cooper, the administrators, announced that all Birthdays stores will close along with approximately 200 Clinton Cards branded stores. American Greetings bid around £24m for the remaining stores but the Birthdays unit at Parkgate and the lease of the former store in The Old Town Hall have not been bought. It is anticipated that the remaining assets will be liquidated and proceeds will be used to repay Clinton Cards' creditors, including American Greetings.

Zev Weiss, chief executive officer at American Greetings, said: "We are pleased to welcome these stores, the Clinton Cards brand, and the approximately 4,500 employees as members of the American Greetings family. As mentioned before, we believe that properly managed, and with the appropriate capital structure, Clinton Cards can be both an important and profitable retailer in the specialty channel of distribution over the long term.

"The separation of the acquired assets and business from the legal entity in administration is an important first step of this process. We have also lined-up a leadership team to run the new UK subsidiary that has extensive specialty retail channel experience."

Peter Saville, joint administrator and partner at Zolfo Cooper, added: "We have always been of the view that despite an intensely competitive retail environment and what proved to be excessively ambitious expansion plans in recent years, there was a strong underlying business contained within Clinton Cards.

"The significant number of credible expressions of interest we received for the business we have sold today, from both trade and financial buyers alike, is testament to this fact. We would like to thank the staff for their dedication and patience throughout what has been an understandably difficult time for all concerned and we wish both them and the new owners of the business every success for the future."

American Greetings website

Clinton Cards websiteImages: American Greetings