‘Carole came out of it with nothing’: Inside demise of £30m Party Pieces, inspired by Kate, by the man trying to save it
PARTYWARE business Party Pieces doesn’t hold a royal warrant, but it might as well.
It’s the family business of the future Queen, Princess Kate.
Founded by Kate’s mum, Carole Middleton, it was where the Princess of Wales got her first work experience and provided the funds to send her and her siblings, Pippa and James to posh Marlborough School, propelling all three children into the upper echelons of society.
From there Kate attended St Andrew’s University in Scotland where she met Prince William. Without entrepreneur Carole’s thriving business, it’s doubtful that Kate’s royal fairytale would ever have happened.
And Carole says that the business, which sells everything from plates and cups to balloons and banners and was once reported to be worth £30m, was inspired by Kate.
“I was planning Catherine’s fifth birthday party and all I could find were some basic ‘clown’ plates. I realised there was a gap in the market for partyware that wasn’t too expensive, looked good and added a bit of a special touch,” she said in an interview last year.
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I was planning Catherine’s fifth birthday party and all I could find were some basic ‘clown’ plates
Carole Middleton
Run as a partnership between Carole and her husband Michael, Party Pieces runs in the Middleton DNA.
It enabled the couple to buy their family home in Berkshire, £4.7m Bucklebury Manor.
Before marrying into the royal family, Kate worked there as project manager and developed the firm’s first birthday and baby categories.
With such royal links it was a shock in June this year when the company went into administration with £2.6m debts, leaving suppliers unpaid and the 30 plus workforce in fear of their futures.
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The company was bought for £180,000 by entrepreneur James Sinclair and continues trading.
James stepped in to save the brand because he recognised its legacy.
Under the terms of a deal known as a pre-pack administration however, James was not liable for the debts that had already been incurred.
Carole has a huge emotional attachment to the business, even now
James Sinclair
Repercussions from creditors continued and earlier this month posters started appearing on lampposts around Carole and Michael’s home demanding that the couple pay debts from their own pockets.
James Middleton, who lives nearby with his wife Alizee, reportedly saw the posters and was so enraged he ripped them down.
But we can reveal that Carole did all she could to try and save the company and that the whole family is sad that the business failed.
The mother of the future queen was particularly worried about some of the staff she employed whose jobs were threatened.
New company boss, James, a former kids entertainer, tells Fabulous: “Carole has a huge emotional attachment to the business, even now. She spent three decades building it, literally from the kitchen table up and the whole family was involved.
"She built into a very successful business. It was a wrench for her to see it start to fail.
“It’s no secret that she’s part of a family that is busier than most and she wanted to retire.
"She sold half of the company to investors, a new team came in, and she stepped away from the business.”
James says that even though Party Pieces struggled during the pandemic, it was still in a healthy position when Carole stepped away but believes, however well intended, that the new management team overstretched and spent too much money.
“In November last year they asked Carole to come back in and she tried to steady the ship.
"She was like a lifeboat and a force of personality, but it was too late. In my view all she was guilty of was trying to retire.
“Everyone thinks she came out of it with a big fat cheque but quite the opposite is true, she came out of it with nothing.
"People expect her or her family to foot the bill, but they haven’t got the kind of the money people think they have.”
James was approached by an intermediary in June this year and asked if he was interested in buying a partyware business. He seemed a perfect fit.
His Partyman Group includes soft play centres, a chain of nurseries, a make-your-own teddy business and a variety of children’s attractions across Essex, including Lee Valley Adventure Park and Marsh Farm.
Carole built into a very successful business. It was a wrench for her to see it start to fail
James Sinclair
After he signed a non-disclosure agreement, he was told the business was Party Pieces.
James couldn’t resist. He says he knew there was a famous family behind the brand.
“And within 15 minutes I was on the phone to Carole Middleton,” he says.
The deal was done quickly and allowed Party Pieces to continue trading as it went into administration.
For his investment James got around seven lorry loads of stock, the brand, some of the staff, the website and the infrastructure.
James says that Carole desperately tried to avoid creditors being place out of pocket but in the end that wasn’t possible.
“She wanted the business to be successful after I bought it because there were staff there who she cared about and she wanted to make sure their jobs were secure,” says James, who ensured staff were relocated from Berkshire to the new offices in Essex.
“When you start a business from scratch and run it for 30 years, you care, you want it to carry on. It’s very much like a baby.
"It’s part of who you are, part of your brain and your imagination, and you don’t want it just to end. None of the family did because they all worked there. It would have been a crying shame.”
James says that Party Pieces is now going ‘gangbusters’ and business is booming.
He is even re-introducing the popular catalogues that Carole pioneered in the nineties and were discontinued when she stepped away from the business.
Carole has said that her children have been her ‘biggest supporters and biggest critics’.
“Their honest feedback has been invaluable in helping to shape the business,” she said.
And the Middleton influence is set to live on.
“I’ve kept in contact with Carole, and she likes what we are doing. We are bringing back some of the good stuff she did as well as introducing some innovations of our own like personalised birthday cards and cakes,” says James.
“I could see what the problems were, and I wanted to repair the company because of the legacy it has.”
Although, James is too discreet to say whether Party Pieces will be supplying banners and balloons for royal parties, he does admit to being a big royal fan and is pleased he managed to save a company, which had such a role in modern royal history.
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“The business just needed a cuddle,” he says, “and that’s what we’ve done.”
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