Party Fiesta has put its production unit up for sale three months after filing for bankruptcy. Due to the pandemic, this well-known chain of costumes and celebration items has accumulated a debt of more than 18 million euros, the result of its inability to return loans to the banks (to whom it owes 10 million), to the suppliers (to who owes 4 million more) and other creditors among which is the Public Administration.
But all is not lost for the company, founded in Barcelona in 1994 by the Hernández family. On Wednesday, Barcelona's commercial court number 10 will open the deadline for submitting offers from companies interested in acquiring the production unit. There are possibilities of saving what remains of the business, controlled for four years by Suma Capital, an investment fund manager that acquired 97% of the capital (3% is in the hands of the CEO, Lolo Hernández).
“At the moment, we know that three companies are interested. Among them there are a group of local businessmen and two international companies in the same sector,” says Francesc Poch, bankruptcy administrator of the Advecon firm in charge of supervising the process. Poch remembers that each company will establish the conditions of the purchase in its offer and then the judge will decide which of them is the best for the benefit of the contest.
According to the criteria of the bankruptcy administrator, Party Fiesta's assets are valued at almost 8 million euros. Among them, the value of the brand, goodwill, product stock and a logistics warehouse in the municipality of Fogars de la Selva stand out.
And despite having filed for competition, the company has maintained its activity through 34 of its own stores throughout Spain. It has also retained 38 franchise store contracts, located in this country and abroad, in states such as France, Portugal, Germany or Austria. In total, employment amounts to 203 people and turnover has the potential to reach 20 million euros in the short term.
These are figures that are far from the results of the years before the pandemic, when Party Fiesta employed 300 people through a network of more than 200 stores that reported a turnover of more than 30 million euros. In a few weeks, when the judge has chosen the best offer, Party Fiesta will have the opportunity to get back on the path to growth in the hands of a new owner.
