Brierley Hill tiles store shuts as parent group is sold

CTD, which has its head office in Birmingham, entered administration on Monday, August 19.

The sale does not include a store at Enterprise Trading Estate, off Pedmore Road, Brierley Hill, which has closed along with one in Sutton Coldfield.

CTD supplies tiles to the retail, trade and commercial markets through a collection of related brands including CTD Tiles, CTD Trade and CTD Architectural Tiles, with total annual revenue of around £75 million.

The retail business operated 86 stores across the UK, each with a separate trade and retail showroom, and had total store revenue of around £50 million in the year to the end of June.

The stores being acquired by Topps Group had total sales of around £20 million.

The remaining 56 CTD Tiles stores not being acquired will be disposed of through the administration.

The acquired stores, including at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, and other assets will continue to trade under the CTD brand name.

Rob Parker, Topps Group chief executive said: "The CTD brand and assets are an excellent fit with our existing business and the acquisition creates a new and complementary specialist tile business within the Topps Group.

"CTD operates a different model to our existing Topps Tiles retail stores, with separate trade and retail offers within each unit and a number of market-specific sub-brands which are differentiated from our existing offer."

He added: "We are excited about the future of CTD within the Topps Group and look forward to welcoming our new colleagues to the business."

James Lumb and Will Wright of Interpath Advisory secured the sale which includes distribution hubs in Kings Norton, Birmingham and Leeds.

Topps Group is the UK’s largest specialist supplier of tiles and associated products with more than 300 stores across the UK. As part of the transaction, 92 staff will transfer to the purchaser.

The joint administrators will retain 65 staff as part of the transitional services agreement to assist with the delivery of the administration.

The remainder of the company’s staff have been made redundant and the remaining 56 branches have closed.

Mr Lumb, managing director at Interpath Advisory and joint administrator of CTD Tiles, said: “CTD Tiles is a major player in the industry, but market conditions proved insurmountable as consumer and trade demand failed to recover in line with expectations. The transaction with Topps Group provides continuity for a considerable number of staff and stores as part of a major tiles group. We are working with the team to ensure a smooth transition for customers and suppliers.

“Regrettably, the remaining sites have closed, which has resulted in redundancies. We are now focused on supporting those staff and have specialist teams on site working with impacted employees to help make representations to the Redundancy Payments Service where relevant.”