Coloroll
Coloroll is a United Kingdom wallpaper brand owned by CWV Ltd.
Developed from a family-owned wallpaper company founded in the 1970s, during the 1980s Coloroll Group became a dominant publicly listed home furnishings business, which collapsed in 1990 through excessive debt. Of the ten residual brands that survived the collapse, nine of the businesses survive presently.[1]
Foundation
The company was founded in 1970 by the Gatward family, as a printed paper bag manufacturer.[1] After hiring marketing manager John Bray, he developed a strategy to move into wallpaper manufacture. Hiring designers John Wilman and Linda Beard, they developed a range similar to the classic fashion look developed by Welsh entrepreneur Laura Ashley.[1] To develop new overseas markets, Bray hired John Ashcroft from competitor Crown Wallpaper as export manager.[2]
Coloroll Group
Appointed managing director in 1981, Ashcroft bought the Gatwards and Bray out of the business in 1984.[1]
Ashcroft's strategy was to extend the Wilman/Beard designs across a range of home furnishings, to provide a co-ordinated whole home look to the consumer. After floating the business in 1985 – leading shareholders included the pension funds of Scottish Amicable and British Coal – the company spent £420 million in the next five years on acquisitions, of which £16 million was spent in the United States, taking the strategic vision into a reality.[1]
The brands they bought included:[1]
- Alexander Drew, printing
- Burlington Wallcoverings, later sold to Graham & Brown
- Denby Pottery Company[3]
- Edinburgh Crystal
- Kosset Carpets
- Royal Winton[4]
- Staffordshire Potteries Ltd, sold off in the collapse of 1990 as Staffordshire Tableware
- William Barrett Group, furniture, later bought by property developers with assets sold to Hampson Industries
- Edward Fogarty, duvet/pillow supplier
- Walmates Vinyl, US wallpaper manufacturer
Collapse
In 1988, the group paid £215 million for recently created clothing and carpet conglomerate John Crowther, which had not itself been fully integrated.[5] In 1989, the United States wallpaper operations were sold off to create cash. In 1990, a refinancing exercise led to an audit by the banks that showed that group debt was at £350 million. Refusing to underwrite the rising debt without an additional capital injection, proposed buyer Candover Investments withdrew when the debt level increased to nearly £500 million.[1]
In June 1990, the High Court agreed at the banks' request to the appointment of Ernst & Young as receivers. In six months they agreed eight management buyouts, and sold off two other business. 1500 employees in non-saleable businesses were made redundant, while less than half of the £200 million owed to the banks was recovered; lead lender NatWest took a £25 million loss. Swedish investment companies Mercurius and Proventus, who had each paid £2.3 million for 5 per cent of the group in February 1990, lost their entire investment.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 David Bowen (21 November 1993). "Rolling over the past". The Independent. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
- ↑ David Bowen (7 April 1994). "Pension Scandal – rise and fall of an empire founded on ego and expansion". The Independent. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
- ↑ "Coloroll Ceramics". Stoke Museums. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
- ↑ "Coloroll Ceramics Group". thepotteries.org. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
- ↑ When Coloroll bought the John Crowther group they acquired Herbert Johnson. Coloroll sold this London firm of hatters to a management buy-out team called the Response Group. See Prior, Katherine (2012). In Good Hands: 250 Years of Craftsmanship at Swaine Adeney Brigg. Cambridge: John Adamson. ISBN 978-1-898565-09-3 OCLC 815728722, p. 133.