Kurt Geiger is a perfect fit for Jones the Bootmaker

By RUPERT STEINER FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Updated: 08:59 EST, 3 June 2011

The management of Kurt Geiger are in line to share a £20m fortune after the designer shoe chain was sold to an american retailer for £215m.

It is the third time in six years that the upmarket firm, which was started by the eponymous austrian entrepreneur from a single store in London’s Bond Street, was flipped.

This latest deal means chief executive Neil Clifford, who with 55 colleagues owns 28 per cent of the firm, has his foot in the door for another tidy fortune.

The management of Kurt Geiger are in line to share a £20m fortune after the designer shoe chain was sold to an american retailer for £215m

However, the value of the stake has shrunk to £20m after debts were stripped out.

The New York-listed Jones Group, which owns rival shoe brands Stuart Weitzman and Nine West, is using the acquisition of the 49 UK stores and 156 concessions to expand its international footprint.

Kurt Geiger, which sells its own brands including KG and Carvela, also hawks luxury heels from Nicole Farhi and Marc Jacobs.

Its most recent accounts, published for the year to last February, show it traded strongly with profits up around 20 per cent to £14.7m.

Richard Dickson, chief executive of Jones apparel Group, said: ‘By leveraging our deep retail networks worldwide, there is substantial opportunity to grow Jones’ revenue base internationally and to introduce its brands to the US.’

The management team, including Clifford, will be retained. The sale follows luxury goods group Labelux’s acquisition of another high-profile shoe brand, Jimmy Choo, from TowerBrook Capital Partners last month.

The Kurt Geiger business has grown rapidly since it was bought by Harrods in 1994 and sold in 2005 to management backed by Barclays for £46m.

Three years later the management once again bought it out with backing from a private equity firm, this time Graphite Capital, for £95m.

It more than doubled its investment over three years.