This news was sort of lost in the Sussex shuffle this week, but on Thursday, Sky News reported exclusively that Carole and Michael Middleton finally “sold” their failed business, Party Pieces. For decades, we were told that Party Pieces was a brilliant, lucrative and successful business, one which provided the Middletons with unbelievable wealth, enough to finance their three kids’ expensive educations and extended waitying years. That was all a lie – Party Pieces was a house of cards, it’s been debt-ridden for years and the only way the company was “sold” was because it was completely insolvent, to the point where the court took over and appointed a third-party to negotiate the sale of Party Pieces for what sounds like pennies on the dollar. Well, other media outlets are now trying to figure out what happened.
The online party supplies retailer founded by the parents of the Princess of Wales has been sold after collapsing into administration. Party Pieces, founded in 1987 by Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, was bought out of administration on Thursday by the entrepreneur James Sinclair, who owns businesses including Teddy Tastic Bear Co Ltd.
It has not been disclosed how much Sinclair paid to buy the business and its assets in a pre-pack administration, first reported by Sky News.
Will Wright and Chris Pole from the financial restructuring firm Interpath Advisory were appointed joint administrators to Party Pieces on Thursday and immediately sold the business to Teddy Tastic Bear Co, which will also take on the company’s 12 employees.
The sale of Party Pieces marks the end of the Middletons’ ownership of the business they founded in 1987, which had run into trouble in recent years. While the couple are the shareholders in the business, it is not known if they are also creditors. Shareholders tend to receive very little, if anything, if a company is bought out of administration. The administrators of Party Pieces are required to report to creditors within eight weeks of the administration, setting out their proposals.
Party Pieces suffered a significant knock to trade during the Covid pandemic, which put a stop to parties and celebrations for months at a time.
Wright, head of restructuring at Interpath and joint administrator, said: “Party Pieces is a well-established brand with a proud British heritage, but like many other companies across the retail space, had been impacted profoundly by the effects of the pandemic and the ensuing restrictions on social gatherings.”
Yikes, “collapsing into administration” and “shareholders tend to receive very little, if anything, if a company is bought out of administration.” Party Pieces was collapsing under its debt and Carole and Mike Middleton probably made nothing from the sale of their business. The Telegraph also put a number on it: “Party Pieces Holdings, the parent company of the firm that once employed the Princess, had racked up a deficit of £1.35 million and the Middletons failed to find new investors or a buyer willing to take on the company with the entirety of the debt.” The Telegraph also explains this whole “pre-pack administration” thing, which is basically just a British version of filing for bankruptcy, allowing the court to sell off your bankrupt business and giving the new buyer the leeway to negotiate with your creditors.
I’ve seen a lot of people talk about why Prince William didn’t step in and help his in-laws, especially given that he’s swimming in Duchy of Cornwall money. Well, William did buy the Middletons their big manor house in Bucklebury shortly after he and Kate married. I also believe – but I have no evidence of this – that Charles put some safeguards within the Duchy of Cornwall for exactly this reason, to keep the prodigal son from looting the duchy to throw money at the Middletons’ failed business. Plus, it’s been clear for a few years now that William is no longer super-close to the Middletons. There was a significant shift in 2021, and I suspect it was when the Middletons were practically hysterical and briefing the media about how William simply must bring Kate to the unveiling of the Diana statue. The stories around that time were… notable for how frantic Carole seemed in particular.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
-
- Michael and Carole Middleton arriving at Westminster Abbey, central London, ahead of the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.,Image: 774175111, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Milligan / Avalon
-
- Carole Middleton arriving at Westminster Abbey, central London, ahead of the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.,Image: 774175184, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Milligan / Avalon
-
- Carole Middleton, Michael Middleton, Pippa Middleton and James Middleton at the Coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom, on 06 May 2023.,Image: 774203418, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
-
- Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton arrive at the Coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom, on 06 May 2023.,Image: 774248529, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Phil Harris / Avalon
I’m sure they paid themselves salaries before they left, though. Maybe gave themselves a nice severance. And their business was failing well before the pandemic. It just gave them a nice excuse to identify with the “little guy” and pretend they were hit hard by unforeseen circumstances, rather than by their own gross mismanagement.
Like a lot of family businesses they undoubtedly used it to fund their lifestyle and spend on either the company or themselves every dime while the getting was good. Everyone also always forgets this but the Middletons didn’t have to pay school fees for their kids. Mike Middleton is the recipient of a trust fund for his kids’ education and Pippa got a full ride all rounders scholarship to their high school. I think the getting was good right up through 2008/9 and by then Kate was about to secure the bag.
I don’t fault Will for not stepping in on this. It would just be throwing good money after bad as they say. Party Pieces is a failure full stop. It doesn’t help the Middleton’s to keep it going with them as owners. I suspect Will will help them financially in other ways, despite the cooling of relations.
I’m of the personal belief that the Middletons bilked him of his Diana inheritance. And it might only been in recent years that William figured out what a sham their business was and how much they were faking shit. Thus, cutting them off. I’d feel bad for him but he’s an abusive psychopath so he deserved it.
I wonder what these grifters are going to do now. How desperate will they get?
You know what @snuffles? I was wondering the same thing. Who is going to fund them now? Because their lifestyle doesn’t come cheap. My guess is on pippa’s husband
Snuffles- if the Mudds (typo and it stays) did bilk Willy of all his cash, this would explain a lot.
I’ve alway believed Willy was lied to about the crying story and I think Meg exposing that lie on Oprah may have opened his eyes to his wife’s lying ways. He may have done some digging. And disliked what he discovered.
That timing would match when things got real bad between the Waleses. Phil’s funeral antics by Kate close on top of this sealed the problems.
The money thing might be a particularly big issue if Peg was mad Harry had money to flee to California and Will had no money to flee due to the Midds. He might have felt like they bilked not only money but potential freedom as well. I’ve often thought Will was jealous Harry could leave. This jealousy might be compounded tenfold if Wills realized he didn’t even have the cash to pretend he could leave.
@rapunzel
He has access to cash now. Makes you wonder if he squirrels enough money away for himself to start a new life, would he abdicate and dip after several years of being Prince of Wales.
Pippa’s husband and in-laws have more money than William. Perhaps the Midds switched alliances when Pippa and James got married. We know James invested in the brother’s nonsense company.
Karma can be a b*tch. Too bad so sad.
@susanCollins, yep a bitch that has taken aim right where it needed to. Hurrah for KARMA, now go get their nasty btch daughter
Jeez whats Carol(e) done to her face – she looked terrible at the coronation. Given she has the same raised tox eyebrow as Catty the must have a 2 for 1 deal with the botox tech.
The question is where are they going to find the money to pay off the debt or will it be written off as some sort of tax thing.
It would also not surprise me that they have money stashed away from the money they’ve gotten over the years from selling RF secrets.
This is not a good look for Catty – given all the negative stories about her over the past few months all is not well in the House of Keen Wiglets.
I hâte on Waity for a lot but as someone who has the one raised brow by default (my face can’t help it), I doubt it’s Botox. If her mother also has it, it’s genetic. I’m 34, don’t go out into the sun so don’t have any wrinkles and have never entertained Botox. My eyebrow raises all on it’s on no matter how I try to stop it. All government photos look like I’m saying “and? what are you going to do about?”. Some of us can’t help having resting b face.
Right-but it’s new. Neither one of them had that before.
So this was a distressed sale for a peppercorn rent with a ton of NDA’s to ensure that the full scale of the money laundering never comes to light.
I wonder what favours the buyer will get ? A seat next to William and Kate at Royal Ascot and maybe a seat at a banquet or two for absorbing the costs of this loss making business ?
I am guessing one of the Courtiers played ‘fixer’ to protect William and Kate now that they’re PPoW and the Duchy money is ‘potentially’ exposed. Otherwise why the sudden urgency ?
All in all Carol did well, she got all three kids married off well and is now part of the new money section of the Aristocracy. Both daughters are now very financially well off and Michael and Carole will never worry about money ever again. I smell a Knighthood in the works for Sir Michael Middleton and Lady Middleton.
The children were not successful in their own right just told to find rich spouse’s. Kate was raised to be a stepford
So Carole and Michael are officially retired, eh? Willy will now have Carole around 24/7 and I love that for him.
Other companies like PP before Amazon described how they were perplexed how the Middletons were able to live lavishly as many were scraping by. I have a feeling there have been many stories that have been “killed” (I.e bought and never saw the light of day) bc it’s odd no one has figured out how this family manages to live the way they do. How are Carole and Michael paying for the upkeep, taxes and lifestyle now that PP is done?
Uncle Hookers-n-Blow likely financed them and/or used PP as a way to launder drug money. He made a ton of money with a technology company he started up then sold. He’s as sleazy as they come.
It’s clear that the business was struggling long before the pandemic and the foray into the US market, as niche as it was, was a last ditch effort to save the company. Where’s the press outrage that the future Queen’s parents lost their company?
They got hit HARD with the introduction of the GDPR privacy bill in 2018 – they made a lot of money selling their email lists on. A lot of small business took a big hit with that.
There was also an uptick in leaks to the media about Meghan so I bet that crying story provided a tidy sum in late 2018 when the GDPR effects were starting to take hold.
Why didn’t their other “terribly moderately rich” son in law help them? Or is Pippa not as close to her parents as we’re led to believe
He already bailed out James’s failed Boompf business so he’s clearly not about to do it again.
1.35 million in debt and none of their fancy rich relatives or friends would help them out to avoid the disgrace of losing the company in this way? This has probably been long coming; who knows how many times James Matthews has bailed them out previously to no avail. There is a reason he told them no this time and let it fall out of their hands. Burger King could care less as it doesn’t concern him. This is never the end goal of a business like this. I wonder how long before we hear they are downsizing from Middleton Manor.
Uncle blow and hookers clearly isn’t going to bail them out again either but then again how much he have left of the money he sold his business for. It was something like £750mill but that was yrs ago.
If Gary invested even half of that amount in low risk funds he’s made it back three times over
The business plan for Party Pieces is outdated. It should have modernized and leaned into streamline online sales better.
Who and what else does that sound like ?
Sears, Roebuck and Co???
@BayTampaBay – the BRF
In reality, it would not have mattered what they did. Businesses like these were middlemen for selling cheap, Chinese-manufactured goods to British clientele. Then Amazon and Alibaba and the like came up, and the customers no longer needed middlemen – they could buy from the source at even lower prices. Party Pieces and the like were able to manage for a bit after that selling their mailing lists, but then privacy laws put a stop to that. So now it’s gone.
There’s no kind of management that can save horse whip sellers in an automobile world.
So they dropped this news on Thursday huh? Along with the cost for the Queens funeral. Okay.
And after the news about Harry’s car chase had been negatively portrayed by the UK media
It had to be a scam business. I didn’t follow harry and Megan’s wedding, but I remember being surprised that party pieces wasn’t mentioned. That’s crazy.
I can’t remember party pieces being mentioned at any royal event. Yes I know it’s two different clientele but …. they can’t make candy gift bags? What about the paper decorations. It appears no one threw any business their way.
That was my first clue that no one really cared who William married. Not even a baby shower. Kate looks like the type who would advocate for her parents. No one thought to throw Kate a bone. Camilla sister is chucks decorator. Did she ever use party pieces for any client?
Yeah Charles has thrown plenty of business towards family members—Camilla’s sister Annabel has decorated multiple properties of his and Lord Lichfield, like Anthony Armstrong jones, has photographed many royals and events—so it’s not that it isn’t done. But they actually had talent.
Only 12 employees? Granted, this may be the final low number after the pandemic, but how can you even have a multi-million dollar company that has only 12 employees? Or at most, triple that? And whatever the reason was, I would have been very hurt/angry over been excluded from that statue unveiling. What is wrong with these people? No spouses at a significant event?
You outsource everything. Lots of mail order companies use warehouse companies for their inventory and shipping, consultants, outside graphic design people, bookkeepers, etc.
Ah. Didn’t even think of that. I worked at Harry and David, Jackson & Perkins, Bear Creek Corporation where everything was done in-house. The pear packing, the cake baking, the rose bush packaging, the name list renting, taking the phone orders, typing in the mail orders, the catalog copy & photography, etc. That was decades ago, though, and no doubt things have changed.
It was previously reported they had 35. People were laid off in 2021.
At the end of the day William has broke in laws like Harry. The difference is Harry didn’t bankroll the Markles (smart) and saved his inheritance from Diana for Archie (and now Lili). There’s probably nothing left of William’s share.
Well, although the Midds likely Got no money out of this, they DID get rid of a large amount of debt. That’s not nothing.
I don’t see how William could have bailed out Party Pieces even if he wanted to (ps he didn’t want to).
It’s not really possible to invest in an out-of-date business. The consumer sources this kind of tat better at discount stores or Amazon. The just-in-time logistics operations in the UK have been laid waste by Brexit.
Having drained Party Pieces as they did for decades with little change or investment infrastructure it was no doubt time to stop pretending. It’s probably a tax write off for their investors. I suspect that James and Pippa’s Bucklebury Farm takeover and play place being built is providing all the Middleton except Kate with an income.
It was reported years ago that PP made its money from selling its mailing lists.
I can’t enlarge the picture, but is CarolE wearing an imitation Big Blue necklace and earrings?
I think they’ll try to get to the Duchy money. It’s ripe for the bilking and Will is using it as his own personal piggy bank, right?
Why do they even sugar coat it. They should get to the Point- the Middleton’s company went Bankrupt.
They want to discredit HM but Kate’s family had a failing business For years !
Another scenario, Kate lays down the law with Will: support my parents or else! Who knows what the “or else” could be? I imagine there are hundreds, even thousands, of things she knows that would discredit Will. Don’t forget– she knows where the bodies are buried, too (and where the hundreds of scantily clad side chicks are ensconced in to-die-for luxury flats). I think he can’t really refuse.