Moving Ahead
From the collection of
From the collection of
What does it take to build a competition-beating British brand from scratch? And would these executives recognise it now?
After 100 years operating as a family business, Suites Centre Sunderland was subject to a management buyout in 1993. This allowed them to expand, and they were listed on the London stock exchange in 1997. However, constraints on consumer lending in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis were catastrophic for the company's business model; they fell into administration the same year. Thanks to a buyout by a US private equity company, the stores and jobs at SCS were saved, but over 100 years of British ownership came to an end.