JD Sports has made its latest acquisition since Blacks Leisure with the addition of urban outfitter Fly 53.
The ‘streetwise’ fashion label was originally founded in 1994 and had concessions in House of Fraser and Selfridges.
JD Sports has yet to disclose the amount paid for the retailer which once boasted a staff of 67 people and concessions across the country in numerous department stores.
The brand – which been inspired by UK rock and roll – also lays claim to partnerships with bands Queens of the Stone Age and The View among others.
Fly 53 – which used to be called Sabotage – also acted as a wholesaler of clothes to a myriad of small retailers.
The sale follows hot on the heels of JD Sports’ £20m deal to buy 302 stores and the assets of the Blacks and Millets brands last month.
Business restructuring partners Kim Rayment and Jo Wright of BDO handled Fly 53’s sale.
Rayment explained there were no job losses as part of the package and Fly53’s directors had been on the lookout for a new investor since last summer.
He said: “It was a relatively small company which the owners wanted to build up. The owners were looking for a trading partner or a sale of the business.
“The view was to have someone with a deeper pocket and got more traction in terms of increasing stores and getting a better spread.
“But its Christmas performance escalated the sales process and drove it towards the pre-pack insolvency process.
“Now there are deeper funds and a wider network of stores to sell through – a bigger platform.”
According to its latest accessible accounts filed in November 2009, Fly53’s net liabilities stood at £1,054,396.
Insolvency News was unable to contact anyone from JD Sports for comment, while, at the time of going to press FLY53 had failed to comment.
By Andy Pearce
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