Space NK US wholesale unit is sold

PCA Companies has acquired the North American wholesale division of British beauty retailer Space NK. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed.

It includes around 600 points of sale in key department stores such as Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom and Hudson’s Bay among other retailers.

It’s the first retail acquisition for PCA, with the beauty distribution, logistics marketing, and brand licensing company also saying this week that it had forged a selective distribution partnership in North America with Italian fragrance house Fornasetti and family-owned prestige perfume house Tiziana Terenzi. They join Thomas Kosmala and Vahy in the niche luxury fragrance division.

And now there’s Space NK too.

Andy Lightfoot, CEO of Space NK, said the company was growing fast but was’t able to make the most of the opportunities in the US market. And with the UK and US businesses becoming more distinct form each other, the move made commercial sense.

He retains his UK focus with rumours persisting that owner Manzanita Capital wants to sell that business too. 

It’s reportedly picked an investment bank to lead the process that analysts have said could see it fetching up to £400 million. But that assessment was before the US ops sale.

The private equity firm is said to be looking towards an auction later this year after two decades of owning the successful chain.

But it hasn’t yet made a decision when it will sell or whether it retain a minority or majority stake.

Manzanita also owns French perfume house Diptyque and Susanna Kaufmann, the Austrian luxury skincare brand.