Party Fiesta will continue to operate as a network of costume and celebration items stores.
The mercantile court number 10 of Barcelona has awarded the productive unit of the business to the company Nipte 5000, controlled by a group of Catalan businessmen from the industry, logistics and IT sector. Among the representatives of this company, there are names like Laura Rosell, Joan Enric Juncà, Jorge Cebey, Alejandro Pardo or Pedro Leg, according to the Mercantile Registry.
The offer that this group of local businessmen has presented to the judge has prevailed over that of another company, called Imdran. “Nipte 5000 manages to retain 60% of the workforce, which is equivalent to maintaining 140 jobs, a figure higher than the 100 jobs contemplated by the other company’s offer,” comment sources familiar with the case, who assure that it has already been has applied an ERE to cut the rest of the jobs.
Furthermore, these sources indicate that the winning firm’s project is more solid. “Nipte 5000 is committed to investing 1.4 million euros and has a plan to boost online sales,” they say. Currently, Party Fiesta has a network of 32 its own stores and 20 franchises.
This Barcelona company – which has been advised by Agustí Bou, from the firm BDO – has acquired the production unit with a valuation of 1.5 million euros, taking into account some assets and the wage bill.
With this court decision, the creditors will not recover the 18 million debt that the company had contracted in recent years. Among them were banks (to whom he owed 10 million), suppliers (to whom he owed 4 million more) and other creditors, among which was the Public Administration. These are data provided to this newspaper by the bankruptcy administrator, Francesc Poch, of the Advecon firm, who was appointed by the judge at the end of July, when bankruptcy was declared.
The court order also implies the departure of the current owner of the business, the Barcelona fund Suma Capital, which four years ago had acquired 97% of the capital, while 3% was in the hands of Lolo Hernández, the CEO.
Party Fiesta thus opens a new stage after almost thirty years in the world of party items. The company was founded in Barcelona in 1994 by the Hernández family.
