European Home Retail plc (EHR) was a listed UK company, operating in home retail. Though registered in

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, its head office was based in

Warmley Warmley is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. Warmley is situated in between Bristol and Bath. It is a parish, with its own church, and has some minor landmarks, such as a World War One memorial the focus of Remembrance Services, and ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. On 13 October 2006, it was announced EHR and its subsidiary Farepak had gone into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

.Bleak Christmas for hamper firm
BBC News, 2 January 2007

History

The origins of Farepak Hampers date back to 1935. In 1969, Bob Johnson was appointed managing director of the small

Christmas club A Christmas club is a special-purpose savings account, first offered by various banks and credit unions in the United States beginning in the early 20th century, including the Great Depression. Bank customers would deposit a set amount of money ea ...

with 500 agents operating from a

butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale ...

's shop in

Peckham Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...

. In 1995 Farepak purchased the older Kleeneze Homecare business from Arcadia Group plc, and changed its name to ''Kleeneze plc'', transferring its original business to a subsidiary ''Farepak Food and Gifts Ltd''. By 2006 ''Kleeneze plc'' changed its name once more to ''European Home Retail plc''.

Farepak collapse

After a series of profit warnings starting in June 2006, Farepak ceased trading on 13 October 2006, leaving tens of thousands of people out of pocket for Christmas 2006. EHR itself went into

later that day. The administrators explained that Farepak's collapse was triggered by the fact £33m it lent to its parent company EHR was not paid back. It emerged during the Insolvency Service hearing that the money paid to Farepak by shoppers saving for Christmas was largely not held in trust and was generally available for the use of Farepak and its parent company, but held under the security net of HBOS, the group's bank. At various points the directors had tried to place these funds into trust, but the bank refused these proposals. It has also been established that the company was not insolvent at the time its customers paid money to it. A fund was set up to help families affected by the Farepak closure. Donations have been made by companies including

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

BSkyB Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers ...

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

and

Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

HBOS HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland plc, which ...

also made a donation, raising criticism that it could have given much more help by extending EHR's debt. The fund was officially closed on 29 November 2006. In December 2006,

Myleene Klass Myleene Angela Klass (born 6 April 1978) is an English musician, singer, television presenter and model. She was a member of the pop group Hear'Say, and later released two solo classical crossover albums in 2003 and 2007. More recently, Klass ...

used

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

to auction off the

bikini A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit primarily worn by women that features one piece on top that covers the breasts, and a second piece on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but usually exposing the navel, and the back generally covering ...

which she wore during her appearance on TV show '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!'', raising £7,000 for the Farepak victims. As a knock-on effect

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

, the group's main delivery agent, went into administration early in 2007. Farepak moved from administration to liquidation on 4 October 2007. The Insolvency Service brought disqualification proceedings against Farepak's directors. Two of the directors, Joanne Ponting and Stephen Hicks, gave undertakings to the Insolvency Service to settle the claims. The remaining directors defended them. In June 2012 the disqualification proceedings were withdrawn by the Insolvency Service after it emerged that "not only did the directors do nothing wrong, they made genuine strenuous efforts to save the group and the depositors" and the cause of the losses to Farepak's customers was the behaviour of its bank, HBOS. Mr Justice Peter Smith, the trial judge, made a statement after the case collapsed in order to explain the reasons. Ponting and Hicks are to be released from their undertakings. The trial judge also criticised the Secretary of State for its unfair approach towards the directors and witnesses.

Board of directors

*Chairman: Sir Clive Thompson (formerly of

Rentokil Rentokil Initial is a British business services group based in Crawley, England. It was founded in 1925 as a pest-control business. It subsequently expanded and diversified, in part through growth under the leadership of Sir Clive Thompson in t ...

) *William Rollason - chief executive officer (CEO) *Stevan Fowler - Finance Director and Company Secretary (appointed 1 January 2006) *Nicholas Gilodi-Johnson - Non-Executive Director *Neil Gillis - Independent Non-executive Director *Paul Munn - Independent Non-executive Director *Michael Johns - Independent Non-executive Director appointed 28 September 2005) Nicholas Gilodi-Johnson was appointed after the death of his father Bob Johnson.

Subsidiary companies

EHR was the parent company for a number of well-known subsidiary companies, namely:

Kleeneze Europe

Kleeneze was sold on 13 October 2006 to

Findel plc Studio, (formerly part of Findel plc) is a British home shopping business and is a wholly owned subsidy of the Frasers Group. Studio was founded in 1962 under the name "Fine Art Developments". It operates online and through catalogues and c ...

eeZee TV

In March 2005, EHR formed the joint venture satellite TV station "eeZee TV", a 50/50 joint venture with

JML Direct JML Direct TV was a television shopping channel owned by JML Direct Limited that mainly broadcasts infomercials featuring various products from the company. The channel was broadcast on Sky and Freesat. JML Direct TV originally launched on ...

, broadcasting on Sky digital channel 657.

Farepak Food & Gifts Limited

Farepak had been operating since 1981 at a site in

. Its own annual turnover of £70m (2004), was mainly generated from its core business in

Christmas hamper A hamper refers to one of several related basket-like items. In primarily British usage, it refers to a wicker basket, usually large, that is used for the transport of items, often food. In North America, the term generally refers to a household ...

s. In addition, Farepak sold High Street (and other) gift vouchers and also supplied gifts, including electricals. Unlike many of the other subsidiary companies, Farepak was not sold to the Findel group. There was a five-hour protest outside the company's gates on 17 October 2006.

I Want One Of Those.com

Gifts and gadgets website. Now sold to the Findel group.

Kitbag.com

Europe's largest online sports retailer. Now sold to the Findel group.

Stock market

European Home Retail plc was listed on the stock exchange under ticker code EHR.L. 2005 group turnover was £176.2m.

References

External links

General

Kleeneze company website

Farepak Website

Direct Selling Association

Farepak Hampers
Carmarthenshire County Council
How Farepak Stole Christmas
Unfairpak Forum
Western Daily Press - Fair Play for the Farepak Families
Western Daily Press Farepak Christmas Appeal

News

BBC

Farepak families fund is launched
BBC News, 7 November 2006
Factsheets: Trading Standards info on Farepak
BBC Oxford, 17 October 2006
New bid to help Farepak families
BBC News, 19 October 2006
MPs call for FTSE Farepak pledge
BBC News, 23 November 2006
Farepak response fund due to shut
BBC News, 29 November 2006
Hampers for some Farepak victims
BBC News, 7 December 2006

Swindon Advertiser

Farepak Fiasco special section
contains numerous articles
Farepak victims' plight is taken up by Government
Swindon Advertister, 20 October 2006
We'll keep up the pressure on Farepak
Swindon Advertister, 23 October 2006
Top level probe ordered into Farepak fiasco
Swindon Advertister, 25 October 2006
Farepak boss: 'I am so sorry'
Swindon Advertister, 12 November 2006
Please play Santa to Farepak customers
Swindon Advertister, 23 November 2006
TV documentary shows Farepak families still want answers
Swindon Advertister, 5 December 2006

Other

The Observer, 5 November 2006 {{Multi-level marketing Defunct multi-level marketing companies British companies established in 1935 Retail companies established in 1935 Retail companies disestablished in 2006 Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom