31 Jan. 2023: Tesco has bought the brand and intellectual property of High Street stationery chain Paperchase, hours after it fell into administration. But the grocer has not acquired the chain's 106 shops in the UK and Ireland, leaving the future of 820 staff in doubt.
Paperchase's administrators, Begbies Traynor, said 75 workers at its head office have been made redundant.
All stores will remain open for now with two weeks to redeem gift cards.
Tesco will now sell the stationer's goods in its stores across the UK.
It follows a challenging few years for Paperchase which has been hit recently by rising costs and falling sales.
The business also has stores in train stations, which have suffered from reduced footfall due to more people now working from home.
Jan Marchant, managing director of home and clothing at Tesco, said: "Paperchase is a well-loved brand by so many, and we're proud to bring it to Tesco stores across the UK.
"We have been building our plans to bring more brands and inspiration to the ranges we currently offer, and this will help us to take those plans further."
Several weeks ago, Paperchase said it had put itself up for sale and that a number of buyers were interested in the business.
But earlier on Tuesday it appointed administrators after receiving "no viable offers" for the company or its assets.
Paperchase, which was founded in 1968, went through a form of insolvency proceedings four years ago to cut stores and reduce costs.
It was then bought out of administration in 2021 during the pandemic in a rescue deal which saw the loss of around 500 jobs.
But Paperchase was then sold again in August last year to a private investment firm led by the retail investor Steve Curtis.
By Daniel Thomas & Emma Simpson, BBC News
18 Jan 2023: The consortium that bought Paperchase in August 2022 has put the firm up for sale just five months after its purchase, according to reports.
High-street stationer Paperchase, which at the time of its August purchase had around 125 stores and concessions in the UK, has been put up for auction in the hands of PwC, as first reported by Sky News.
The firm has also retained management consultancy Begbies Traynor’s services in the case that a buyer is not found and the company has to go into liquidation.
Paperchase was in trouble even before the pandemic, entering into a creditors’ voluntary arrangement in 2019 - but in January 2021, the company collapsed into administration, and was sold in a pre-pack to a newly created company Aspen Phoenix Newco, which was backed by private equity firm Permira.
Just a year and a half later, in August 2022, Paperchase was bought by a consortium headed by retail investor Steve Curtis - best known for leading the fashion chain Jigsaw - and backed by Retail Realisation.
Curtis’ leadership, according to contemporary reports, hoped to achieve an ambitious growth plan of doubling the struggling firm’s revenue between 2021 and 2024.
The latest sale - by Curtis’ consortium to a new buyer - if completed, is expected before 20 January, according to Sky News.
The appointment of Begbies Traynor, however, has made a pre-pack seem increasingly likely, according to the city sources that spoke to the news site.
Ian Carrotte, owner of business intelligence firm ICSM credit, said he was concerned for the stationer’s suppliers.
He said: “It is sad to see the demise of Paperchase but our main concern is for the suppliers some of whom won’t get paid if they go into administration.
“Our intelligence suggests there are some suppliers who are going to take a big hit if they go under. The fact is Paperchase’s problems set in long before [the] cost of living crisis came along.”
by Dominic Bernard, PrintWeek