The funding agency which has develop into this 12 months’s most prolific purchaser of excessive avenue chains in Britain is concentrating on a takeover of a privately owned footwear retailer.
Retail business sources mentioned that Modella was now the likeliest purchaser of Wynsors, with a deal probably being struck earlier than the tip of the 12 months.
Wynsors has been exploring a sale for the final two months, and employed the accountancy agency RSM to discover curiosity from potential bidders.
The chain additionally trades from about 40 concession websites, and employs roughly 440 folks.
It has a selected deal with the kids’s college footwear section of the footwear market.
Like many retailers, it’s understood to have seen its latest efficiency adversely affected by the labour value pressures heralded by final 12 months’s Finances.
If the deal is accomplished, it might add Wynsors to a steady of manufacturers which incorporates TG Jones, the brand new title for WH Smith’s excessive avenue chain; Hobbycraft; and The Unique Manufacturing unit Store.
Modella was additionally one of many bidders for Poundland, which was offered in the course of the summer time to Gordon Brothers, one other specialist retail investor.
A spokesman for Modella declined to remark, whereas RSM has been contacted for remark, and Wynsors couldn’t be reached for remark.
