Red Letter Days is a UK company which was an early adopter of the concept of giving experience day vouchers as gifts and corporate rewards, based in Borehamwood in the offices of its parent company, Buyagift. The company is now owned by French firm, The Smartbox group, based in Dublin, who offer gift experiences throughout a number of European countries.

History

The company was founded by former Dragons' Den entrepreneur

Rachel Elnaugh Rachel Elnaugh (born 12 December 1964) is a British entrepreneur who founded the UK gift company Red Letter Days. She was one of the investors participating in the first two series of BBC Two's TV show ''Dragons' Den''. Early life When she w ...

, who developed the idea for Red Letter Days after creatively packaging cricket tickets to give to her father. She saw the opportunity for packaging intangible experiences as gifts and established Red Letter Days in 1989. The business began to take off after placing brochure inserts into national newspapers and magazines in the lead-up to Christmas 1990. Red Letter Days struggled after a "disastrous over-expansion in 2002." In 2005, Sir Rodney Walker was listed as chairman in anticipation of listing on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

, hoping to float on the stock market later that year.

Administration

After expanding via supermarket distribution, Red Letter Days went into administration on 1 August 2005; the remaining assets and inventory were bought by fellow

Dragons' Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it is k ...

entrepreneurs

Theo Paphitis Theodoros "Theo" Paphitis ( el, Θεόδωρος Παφίτης; born 24 September 1959) is a Greek-Cypriot British retail magnate and entrepreneur. He is best known for his appearances on the BBC business programme ''Dragons' Den'' and as former ...

and Peter Jones. They revealed on '' Alan Carr: Chatty Man'' that they made the decision to purchase the company whilst under the influence of alcohol. Following the acquisition, Jones and Paphitis said that all vouchers bought on a credit card or by corporate customers had been honoured. Although Elnaugh was at the helm before and at the time of the company's failure just days after the birth of her fourth child, she blames the problems on the actions of a previous CEO, Simon Vincent, whom she appointed in 2002 but who had left the company in early 2003, while she was in a non-executive role.

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

's '' Tonight Programme'' offered a more critical explanation of the demise of Red Letter Days, citing unpaid suppliers and disappointed purchasers. The programme suggested that the business model failed to

escrow An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacti ...

or earmark supplier payment equity, instead using it for

working capital Working capital (WC) is a financial metric which represents operating liquidity available to a business, organisation, or other entity, including governmental entities. Along with fixed assets such as plant and equipment, working capital is consi ...

. Elnaugh blamed the company's bankers, who placed £3 million in a bond they refused to release for use by the firm, despite the fact that some of it may have related to vouchers that had expired and were not recoverable against the business. It was the funds held by the credit card company under this bond that enabled the new owners to honour vouchers issued prior to the company falling into administration. Mrs. Elnaugh admitted in her book ''Business Nightmares'' that her finance team had lost track of the company's voucher liabilities and its debts to suppliers. After Red Letter Days went into administration with a balance sheet deficiency approaching £9 million, Elnaugh left the Dragons' Den.

Restart

Since 2005, Red Letter Days has continued to offer a wide range of experiences, including

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, and spa days. Under Paphitis and Jones' ownership, the company went from administration to an annual turnover of over £20 million. They sold the now profitable Red Letter Days to Buyagift for an undisclosed price, claiming that "the time felt right and the sale will ensure an exciting and progressive next chapter in Red Letter Days' evolvement".

Buyout

Red Letter Days was bought by the French multinational company Smart&co S.A.S in 2017, joining other brands like Buyagift, Dakotabox and Odisseias. In June 2019, ownership of the company was transferred to Buyagift plc, and the limited company was put into voluntary liquidation with a declaration of solvency. SmartBox founder Pierre-Edouard Sterin and CEO John Perkins resigned, and a new CEO, Olivier Fajour, was appointed.

References

External links

* {{official, https://www.redletterdays.co.uk/ Companies established in 1989 Re-established companies Privately held companies of the United Kingdom Giving 1989 establishments in the United Kingdom 2017 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 2017 establishments in Ireland 2017 establishments in France