Jobs go and wedding orders at risk as Confetti falls into administration

Confetti, which offers wedding advice and merchandise like invitations and gifts, has made more than half its workforce redundant and closed its five high street stores, including one in Leeds.

Administrator RSM Tenon said it had begun an "urgent" search for a buyer for the Manchester-based company, which was founded in 1999 and had a turnover of 5.7m.

The business entered administration shortly after it was sold by Findel, a home shopping group based in Burley-in-Wharfedale, to the Hut Group, an online retailer that has run websites for Asda, WH Smith and Argos.

Joint administrator Kenny Craig, a director with RSM Tenon, said about 1,100 customers had placed orders with Confetti.

"The orders are worth about 45 each on average, " he said. "We are going to try to fulfil those orders from stock, but I cannot give an absolute guarantee."

Mr Craig said Confetti's website would continue, but the company's store in The Light, a leisure and shopping complex in Leeds city centre, had closed along with branches in London, Birmingham, Reading and Glasgow.

Some 36 staff have been retained to support the web- site and fill administration roles, but 47 have been made redundant.

Mr Craig said 15 potential buyers had expressed an interest in the business. He indicated that the early closing date for offers, August 23, might be put back.

"Confetti is a very high-profile market-leading online brand and enjoys a large customer base, " he said.

"The business has great potential for further development and the administration presents an outstanding opportunity for a retail business or entrepreneur to acquire an immediate presence in the wedding and celebrations market.

"We would urge interested parties to make contact in the next day or two to ensure they have a chance to bid for the business."

Staff and customers yester- day used an online Confetti forum to air their views about the business going into administration.

Jayne Harrison, who worked at the company's Birmingham store for five-and-a-half years, wrote: "I hope that customers do end up either getting their money back or at least their orders.

"As far as we know it is unlikely that the stores will reopen, but I believe that they are trying to save the website, the wedding industry will never be the same again."

Findel sold Confetti and online gadgets retailer I Want One Of Those (IWOOT) to The Hut Group for 600,000 last week.

The two websites were run by a subsidiary of Findel called CWIO, which made a pre-tax loss of 13.8m in the year to April 2.

At the time of the sale, they had gross assets of 5.7m and net liabilities of 19.3m.

A spokeswoman for Findel said: "We sold CWIO, Confetti Network Limited and IWOOT to Metro Holdings Limited.

"We played no part in the decision subsequently taken by Metro Holdings Limited, part of the Hut Group, to appoint administrators."

The Hut Group was unavailable for comment.