Kate’s family business: Carole and Michael Middleton have had to sell their party shop

In 1987, around the kitchen table at home, Carole and Michael Middleton started their party supplies business. Over the decades, “Party Pieces” has grown into a remarkable company, which in 2021 was valued at 34.5 million euros, according to the “Abendzeitung München”.

For a long time, the party company ran like butter, several thousand orders are said to have been sent weekly according to the website. But the Covid 19 pandemic caused the family business to collapse massively. Between contact restrictions and curfews, people hardly celebrated big children’s birthdays for which garlands, balloons, invitation cards or tablecloths were needed. Funds were mostly kept together as the pandemic posed an unknown existential threat to everyone. The result: “Party Pieces” is said to have been in the red, employees were laid off, the company had around 40 employees at its best, and warehousing was changed. The items on offer were no longer stored, but ordered after ordering and then shipped.

The Middletons’ party shop goes to children’s entertainment mogul

The new buyer announced the transaction on May 18 on his It is the British entrepreneur James Sinclair, who owns the company “Sinclairs Firma Teddy Tastic Bear Co Ltd”. Sinclair is also known as “Britain’s richest clown” as he originally started his career as an animator at children’s birthday parties. In the meantime, he has built up an empire of around £30 million in successful business and children’s entertainment. His company owns several business books, the Teddy Tastic stuffed animal site, ice cream parlors, eight play centers, a family water park and a children’s farm. A perfect fit, then, for a children’s party shop.

The sale of the company was foreseeable because Carole Middleton had already announced that she wanted to downsize in order to have more time “for family, gardening and travel”. In addition, the 68-year-old and her 73-year-old husband hired a London-based consultancy called “Interpath Advisory” to find a buyer in early 2023. The sale is said to be based on a “pre pack deal”, which, according to the “Deutscher Anwaltspiegel” portal, is “a company sale negotiated before insolvency”. Means that the already ailing “Party Pieces” company was sold before the bankruptcy: “The pre-pack procedure is a company sale prepared in advance of the bankruptcy, which is carried out with the opening of the bankruptcy proceedings. This is intended to reduce the duration of the bankruptcy proceedings shortened and the so-called insolvency stigma avoided,” the portal continued.

Carole Middleton could not imagine retiring from the party business in 2021, but the ongoing pandemic has shaken the family business. Carole and Michael Middleton now appear to be heading towards retirement.

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