KBB distributor Waterline has confirmed it is in promising talks with an investor, and that it will also continue to accept and supply orders for Crown Imperial products.
In a joint statement from Waterline and Crown Imperial, the distributor is said to have “entered into late-stage, exclusive discussions” with a third-party which is said to be “keen” to make a financial investment into the business.
The distributor said that “despite recent miscommunications” both Waterline and Crown Imperial are in fact still functioning. Crown has also confirmed everything in today’s Waterline statement.
There has been considerable confusion over the past week, as many retailers were told by Waterline staff on Thursday, 4 September, that an internal memo – seen by kbbreview – said that Crown had closed its factory, employees had entered redundancy talks, and no more orders could be placed as a result.
The following day, Crown Imperial managing director Barry Head, released a conflicting statement saying the company has not ceased trading and its factory is ‘fully operational’.
In today’s statement, the company also said that while the discussions are ongoing, the business remains fully committed to service its customers with the save dependable levels of service it has provided for the past 40 years.
The statement concludes: “Waterline and Crown Imperial would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to all our customers and retail partners for their understanding and continued support during the past few weeks. Your confidence in us helps drive our commitment to support British businesses and the KBB industry.”
News of Waterline seeking investment was first discussed last week, when CEO Michael Marriott commented that the company was “beginning a process of seeking external investment to secure the future of the business. Like many in our sector, we are currently facing cashflow pressures and are carefully reviewing our options.
“Over the past 12 months we launched a number of promising initiatives, including: expanding into the contracts market; expanding into the electrical retailer market and developing our own OEM product ranges from overseas. To drive these initiatives forward, we have brought in experts in each of these fields to ensure the company has the specialist knowledge required to deliver on these goals.
“These steps are part of a broader strategy to build a stronger, more resilient business. As such, we are exploring several routes to source additional financing and ensure that operations can continue while these initiatives take hold.”