Reports have circulated this weekend about Philip Day putting his Edinburgh Woollen Mill empire up for sale.
The Financial Times said "Philip Day’s retail empire could be broken up after the tycoon launched a review of high street chains including Peacocks and the Edinburgh Woollen Mill following a number of unsolicited offers."
In the Retail Gazette they reported: "High street veteran Philip Day has reportedly appointed FRP to sound out potential buyers for Peacocks. The adviser is to provide market intelligence on the business value of the Peacocks store chain, which means it is an exploratory process. A source close to the process told Retail Gazette that this is a valuation process for Peacocks, and not a sales process."
The Times yesterday said: "Day has appointed the advisory firm FRP to sound out potential buyers for the two retail chains, which employ about 7,000 people and trade from more than 900 outlets. FRP asked for offers by last Friday. Day triggered the sale process this month after an unsolicited approach for Peacocks, which is more likely to be offloaded than EWM."
Many of the 900 EWM outlets are based in garden centres including the one pictured above at Dobbies Mellville.
Philip Day was reported to have made a bid for Dobbies Garden Centres back in 2016 when Tesco plc put the garden centres up for sale and he was also rumoured to have put a bid in for Wyevale Garden Centres when that sale process started in 2018.
Read the full stories here:
https://www.ft.com/content/9c30e4a9-a7cb-4718-8d36-9d422ecd73ea
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2020/09/philip-day-puts-peacocks-and-edinburgh-woollen-mill-up-for-sale/
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/philip-day-explores-sale-of-peacocks-and-edinburgh-woollen-mill-zgpht0vk0