Cath Kidston Limited is a British international home furnishing retail company with headquarters in London, with a focus on handicraft and vintage themed items that embody a quintessentially British lifestyle. Designer

Cath Kidston Catherine Isabel Audrey Kidston (born 6 November 1958) is an English fashion designer, businesswoman and author whose company, Cath Kidston Limited sells home furnishings and related goods online, through franchises and by mail order. She is ...

opened her first shop in London's

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that contains a street and public park of the same name. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road ...

in 1994, selling hand-embroidered tea-towels and brightly renovated furniture. She later described it as a "glorified junk shop". In April 2011, there were 41 shops and concessions in the UK, two in the Republic of Ireland, eleven in Japan and three in Korea. Less than three years later there were 136 outlets, including a flagship store on

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...

next to

Fortnum & Mason Fortnum & Mason (colloquially often shortened to just Fortnum's) is an upmarket department store in Piccadilly, London, with additional stores at The Royal Exchange, St Pancras railway station, Heathrow Airport in London and K11 Musea In Hong ...

, and four stores in China. Appearing on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...

'' programme, she described her shops as provoking a '

Marmite reaction Marmite ( ) is a British savoury food spread based on yeast extract, invented by the German scientist Justus von Liebig. It is made from by-products of beer brewing ( lees) and is produced by the British company Unilever. Marmite is a v ...

': "People either love it and want a little bit of it very much, or want to stab us." The company's profits jumped more than 60 per cent from £2.9m to £4.6m in the year to March 2009. Sales rose to £31.3m during the period, compared with £19.3m the year before, partly due to new store openings. In 2010, Cath Kidston sold a majority stake of the company to private equity investors

TA Associates TA Associates, founded in 1968, is one of the early modern-era private equity firms in the United States. The firm leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies. TA invests across five industry groups: technology, hea ...

, retaining a minority stake and remaining the company's Creative Director. In October 2016, TA Associates sold its stake to

Baring Private Equity Asia BPEA EQT (formerly known as Baring Private Equity Asia and BPEA) is an Asian private equity firm. Previously it was an affiliate of Barings Bank before becoming an independent firm. In 2022 it was acquired by EQT Partners to act as its Asian inve ...

for an undisclosed amount. The transaction saw chairman Paul Mason replaced by William Flanz, former chairman and executive of

Gucci Group Gucci (, ; ) is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house based in Florence, Italy. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and branding to Coty, Inc. for fragrance ...

. In April 2020, during the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, the company underwent a "pre-pack" administration. This resulted in the closure of all 60 UK stores on 21 April, with the loss of over 900 jobs. Under the arrangement, the company planned to continue trading online and via its wholesale and franchise businesses including overseas outlets.

References

External links

Cath Kidston Limited
{{Authority control 1993 establishments in England Retail companies of England Companies based in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea