UK biscuit maker’s brands up for sale
The brands of Rivington Biscuits, which collapsed into administration last year, are set to enter the global market after being put up for sale by Metis Partners.
Lancashire-based Rivington Biscuits, which was owned by Dutch company Van Delft, used to manufacture almost 30 different types of biscuits. The company went into administration in December last year with the loss of 99 jobs amid challenging trading conditions, in particular the sharp decline in the value of the pound, pressuring cash flow and profit margins.
Its biscuit ranges, which used to be available in UK supermarkets such as Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, Tesco and Iceland, included the Montana triple chocolate wafer, the Trophy milk chocolate wafer and the Pink Panther wafer.
The IP assets for sale include the goodwill in the Rivington Biscuits brand portfolio, a registered trade mark portfolio and organisational knowledge.
Metis Partners says the sale of the IP surrounding the brands will be of intense interest in the UK biscuit market, which was worth an estimated £4 billion last year. There will also be significant opportunities to extend the brands into international markets, it adds.
Nat Baldwin, of commercial intellectual property consulting firm Metis Partners, who is co-ordinating the marketing drive, noted, “Rivington Biscuits’ products were well-known in the market and were sold through a number of national retail chains.
“The company catered for a variety of markets and was well-positioned in the growing free from sector with products such as its No Wheat gluten-free chocolate and orange wafer.”
Metis Partners is now conducting a global campaign to market and dispose of the biscuit brand portfolio. The sale, it says, is likely to be of particular interest to companies operating in the fields of biscuit manufacturing, retail, lifestyle and brand acquisition.
So if all goes to plan we could be seeing our favourite biscuits return to the market.
