Spanish brand TCN files for bankruptcy

TCN enters the courtroom. The society, owner of the brand, has filed for a voluntary arrangement with creditors with the purpose in mind of favouring its continuity. With this operation, the company seeks to draw a new phase thanks to the acquisition offer provided by a player of the sector, as some sources close to the company have explained to Modaes.es.

 With their will to preserve the activity the bankruptcy process has been filed together with the offer from an interested player who is interested in developing it. Sources from the sector indicate that it could be the company from Barcelona named Simorra. The group, with headquarters in Arenys de Mar (Barcelona), maintains for the time being its complete workforce, which stands at around fifty workers.

Noeco is facing a bankruptcy process three years after the investment fund Endurance Partners took a stake in it. In 2017, the investing group acquired the totality of the company’s shareholdings. Throughout this period, the new partner improved the balance and restructured the bank debt.

Notwithstanding, the company is now forced to enter the courtroom after suffering a huge collapse of sales which lasted since the last quarter of 2017 until now.

The company has filed for bankruptcy together with the offer of a Spanish familiar company from the textile sector

The Noeco society ended fiscal 2017 with a growth of 13.7%, reaching 5.1 million euros, but its red numbers also increased. The group ended the year with losses valued in 399,578 euros contrasting with the negative result of 2016 which stood at 81,000. The company had by the end of 2017 ¡ a workforce composed by fifty people. In 2017, Noeco stopped to have negative equity capital, standing at 960,452 euros.

The company’s liabilities ascended to more than five million euros, as stated in the last results published by the group in the Commercial Registry. The group had thus at the end of the year a long-term debt valued in 3.32 million euros, and a short-term one of two million. The majority of liabilities are with financial entities.

Period under Endurance

After acquiring 100% of Noeco’s shareholdings, Endurance Partners created a strategic committee to guide the creative road of TCN in which the company’s founders Josep María Donat and Totón Comella were maintained. However, shortly after, they both abandoned the company.

Comella left his position as creative director, which was then occupied by Asier Tapia. The new owner also signed Isabelle Massagé in, a former Van del Velde, as the company’s general manager, and reinforced its organisation with professionals coming from Inditex, Mango, Antonio Miró or Armand Basi for the design, quality, retail and marketing departments.

The plans of TCN’s investors contemplated the acceleration of the brand’s expansion abroad by means of following a strategic plan until 2020. The first steps taken in that direction were the opening of a showroom in Paris and the presentation of the brand to media and international buyers in the United Kingdom.

Through the acquisition of TCN, Endurance Partners put one more piece to a fashion brands holding which began to be built in 2012, when the children’s fashion chain Canada House was recovered from the courtrooms. Some time later, they took control of Oro Vivo and afterwards, it was TCN’s turn. Lastly, the investing group, led by José María Rigau and Pedro Picas de la Rosa, acquired Tuc Tuc too.