Retail group Frasers Group, owners of Sofa.com and House of Fraser, acquired online home furnishings brand Amara for a sum of £2m in a pre-pack deal.

Paul Zalkin and Michael Kiely, both of Quantuma Advisory Limited, were appointed as joint administrators of Amara Living on 30 November 2022.

Shortly after the appointment, the business and assets were sold to SDI (Brands 2) Limited, a subsidiary of the Frasers Group, for £2m, with all 82 jobs being transferred to the purchaser.

“The sale transaction will enable the statutory purpose to be achieved and, in my professional opinion, the outcome will be the best available for creditors as a whole in all circumstances,” administrators said.

The sale breakdown included £1m for goodwill, £500,000 for IP and digital assets, £411,000 for stock and £88,000 for office equipment, fixtures and fittings.

In the build up to its administration, Amara had sales of £18m with an EBIT loss of £2.9m. In September 2022, an emergency secured loan note of £1.8m was introduced to repay the company’s stock funding facility, which had been withdrawn over time. The company had also been seeking additional working capital of £3.5m and had engaged debt advisors to assist.

A lengthy funding round failed to deliver the right solution, with administration leading to be the only solution following severe creditor pressure.

Unsecured creditor claims totalled £7.2m, which included £4.8m of trade claims and £230,000 of 270 consumer deposits.

Amara.com was established in 2005 by Sam and Andrew Hood. In 2008 the pair chose to focus on growing Amara’s online operation and have since transformed the business globally which now operates in over 100 countries.