Princess of Wales's parents Carole and Michael Middleton sell their Party Pieces business to Essex 'ice cream entrepreneur' after brush with administration - weeks after she revealed she was 'stepping down to spend more time with grandchildren'
The Princess of Wales' parents Carole and Michael Middleton have sold their Party Pieces business to an Essex ice cream entrepreneur today in a rescue deal after it fell into administration.
The party decorations firm, which was launched by the couple from their kitchen table in 1987, has been bought by James Sinclair, who confirmed the purchase on Instagram this afternoon.
Mr Sinclair, an entrepreneur and a former children's entertainer, also owns Essex-based Rossi Ice Cream, Marsh Farm and and Twizzletops nurseries.
He is also a successful inspirational speaker, lecturing on how to make money from business and property, which will come in handy as he tries to turn Party Pieces around.
Sources said that the sale had been carried out through what is known as a pre-pack administration, meaning that the firm had appointed insolvency practitioners before it was sold without some of its liabilities.
It came just seven months after Carole launched her party paraphernalia business in the US and used a cardboard cut-out of herself to promote the move.
Will Wright, head of restructuring at financial advisory firm Interpath and joint administrator, said: 'Party Pieces is a well-established brand with a proud British heritage, but like many other companies across the retail space, had been impacted profoundly by the effects of the pandemic and the ensuing restrictions on social gatherings.
'We're pleased to have been able to conclude this transaction which sees the business acquired by James Sinclair. We wish him all the very best for the future.'
![Carole and Michael Middleton have now sold their Party Pieces business to a former children's entertainer from Essex](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/14/69607741-12098867-Carole_and_Michael_Middleton_built_their_kitchen_table_business_-a-41_1684416798079.jpg)
Carole and Michael Middleton have now sold their Party Pieces business to a former children's entertainer from Essex
![The new owner is James Sinclair, an ice cream company owner and entrepreneur (pictured with Nigel Farage)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/71139583-12098867-The_new_owner_is_James_Sinclair_an_ice_cream_company_owner_and_e-a-28_1684419644786.jpg)
The new owner is James Sinclair, an ice cream company owner and entrepreneur (pictured with Nigel Farage)
![Carole pictured with Kate (right) and Pippa (behind her) when she launched the firm while pregnant with James](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/14/69607739-12098867-Carole_and_her_family_never_put_a_foot_wrong_no_matter_what_the_-a-13_1684417995234.jpg)
Carole pictured with Kate (right) and Pippa (behind her) when she launched the firm while pregnant with James
![Friends revealed in April that Carole, 68, and Michael, 73, are planning to step away from the firm to spend more time with their grandchildren](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/14/69607867-12098867-Friends_reveal_that_Carole_68_and_Michael_73_are_planning_to_ste-a-12_1684417961141.jpg)
Friends revealed in April that Carole, 68, and Michael, 73, are planning to step away from the firm to spend more time with their grandchildren
![The Rossi ice cream company was snapped up by Mr Sinclair's Party Man group in 2021](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/71140255-12098867-image-a-29_1684419658617.jpg)
The Rossi ice cream company was snapped up by Mr Sinclair's Party Man group in 2021
![Mr Sinclair revealed the 'acquisition' to his 8,000 followers on Instagram](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/71140107-12098867-image-m-23_1684419403311.jpg)
Mr Sinclair revealed the 'acquisition' to his 8,000 followers on Instagram
It is not yet clear what price Mr Sinclair's company, Teddy Tastic Bear Co Ltd, paid for Party Pieces or how big the liabilities were that were remaining.
It comes just weeks after friends of Carole, 68, and Michael, 73, revealed the couple were planning to step away from the firm to spend more time 'for family, gardening and travel.'
The Middletons had wanted to sell Party Pieces with a dowry and avoid insolvency, but this proved impossible, insiders told Sky News.
Interpath Advisory was reportedly appointed as administrator in court this morning.
The firm's sales are said to have been heavily impacted by the pandemic, leading to losses in the last financial year for which accounts have been filed.
Mr Sinclair's personal website says that he 'operates a £30million business which includes leisure, childcare, outdoor attractions, commercial property, arts and crafts manufacturing as well as one of the UK's oldest ice cream companies; The Rossi Ice Cream Company.'
The sale of Party Pieces comes just 12 days after King Charles's Coronation, where Carole and Michael were among the close family in attendance.
The business has also been selling a range of Coronation-themed items on its website.
These include Coronation Flag Bunting (£4.99 for three metres), which features the side profile of the King in gold on a Union Jack background, a set of Great British Party hats and flags (£5) and Union Jack paper plates (£4.99 for eight).
The Middletons owned just over half the company while two investors owner the rest. They have appointed Interpath as strategic advisers.
In April a Party Pieces spokesman commented on news of Interpath's involvement: 'We are working with our advisers to secure additional investment which will help support the business as we look to embark on the next phase of our growth plan.'
![Carole and Kate Middleton pictured shopping in Chelsea in 2006](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/69363713-12098867-Carole_and_Kate_Middleton_pictured_shopping_in_Chelsea_in_2006-a-17_1684418607207.jpg)
Carole and Kate Middleton pictured shopping in Chelsea in 2006
![Prince Louis looks tempted as mum Kate watches him, George and Charlotte decorate cakes for a street party in Cardiff](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/14/69607743-12098867-Prince_Louis_looks_tempted_as_mum_Kate_watches_him_George_and_Ch-a-14_1684418167846.jpg)
Prince Louis looks tempted as mum Kate watches him, George and Charlotte decorate cakes for a street party in Cardiff
![Kate's mother Carole launched her party paraphernalia business in the US in October last year (pictured looking at the products and posters)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/64564195-12098867-Kate_s_mother_Carole_launched_her_party_paraphernalia_business_i-a-15_1684418548202.jpg)
Kate's mother Carole launched her party paraphernalia business in the US in October last year (pictured looking at the products and posters)
![Carole Middleton pictured for Party Pieces campaign](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/67307599-12098867-Carole_Middleton_pictured_for_Party_Pieces_campaign-a-16_1684418559416.jpg)
Carole Middleton pictured for Party Pieces campaign
A friend says: 'Carole and Mike are ready to retire, and rather than just shut up shop, they are looking at the options to see whether someone will buy the business.
'Carole has poured her heart and soul into Party Pieces and loves the business, but she's 68 and is there running things pretty much full-time every day. It's too much of a commitment — she wants more time for family, gardening and travel.'
The story of the rise of Party Pieces is also the story of the rise of the Middleton family — and all three children have worked for the company at some point.
It was launched in 1987 when Carole was pregnant with son James and looking for some fun paper plates for Kate's fifth birthday. Surprised by the lack of options, she decided that she could do better.
Carole, brought up in a council flat and later a small terrace house in Southall, West London, left school at 16 and worked for the Prudential insurance company before getting a job as ground staff for British Airways at Heathrow.
There, she met Michael Middleton, a flight dispatcher who is six years her senior. His family were wealthy and he had been privately educated at Clifton College in Bristol.
They tied the knot in June 1980. In the first years of the marriage they lived in Jordan, where Michael worked, but Carole wasn't sure she was cut out to be an expat mum, so they returned to the UK in 1986 — and it was then that Carole launched her 'kitchen-table business' Party Pieces.
At first she was simply preparing party bags for the parents of her daughters' school friends, but over time the business grew sufficiently to take over a shed in their garden and eventually to require its own premises.
![James Sinclair is a larger than life character who was once a children's entertainer](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/71139389-12098867-image-a-19_1684419165560.jpg)
James Sinclair is a larger than life character who was once a children's entertainer
![He owns a Adventure and Animal park in Essex](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/71139413-12098867-image-a-20_1684419175599.jpg)
He owns a Adventure and Animal park in Essex
![Mr Sinclair is also an inspirational speaker, lecturing on how to make money](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/71139351-12098867-image-a-21_1684419179613.jpg)
Mr Sinclair is also an inspirational speaker, lecturing on how to make money
The key change was the advent of online shopping in the 1990s. Michael Middleton gave up his job to get involved as it took off. At the time of their daughter's wedding to Prince William, Party Pieces was said — perhaps over-excitedly — to be worth £30 million.
Certainly the business helped to pay the school fees for all three children, who were expensively educated at Marlborough College.
There, 'the Mids' became renowned for doing everything just that crucial bit better than their contemporaries.
One fellow parent told Tatler magazine: 'There was always something slightly galling about having your children at school with the Middletons.
'Every pristine item of clothing would have a beautifully sewn-in name tape, for instance. It was unthinkable that they would end up resorting to marker pen on labels like the rest of us.
'There were huge picnics on sports days, the smartest tennis rackets — that kind of thing. It made the rest of us all feel rather hopeless.'
The writer added: 'Ultimately, Carole has played a blinder as a mother. Not only are all of her children unfairly good-looking, they are also famously charming. Always the first to write a thank-you letter, they dance all night and are still the first up in the morning, plumping cushions and washing up.'
Naturally, when Kate caught Prince William's eye at St Andrews University and then spent years as his girlfriend before their wedding in 2011, the whole family were greatly scrutinised.
Carole's fun-loving brother, Gary, living in Maison de Bang Bang in Ibiza, was interviewed. Carole was chastised for chewing gum during Prince William's passing out parade at Sandhurst. And, woundingly, Kate was branded 'Waity Katie'.
However, as all the Marlborough mums could have told you, Carole and her family never put a foot wrong, no matter what the provocation. They were polite, they were patient and they kept their mouths firmly shut.
The Queen's maxim — 'Never complain, never explain' — was adopted as their own.
And in the meantime, Carole quietly got on with running her party enterprise with formidable drive and energy.
She gave a rare interview to this newspaper in 2021 and was asked why she didn't feel the urge to retire from the party supplies business, particularly having come through the pandemic.
She said the thought had not even crossed her mind.
'They say if you do a job you enjoy, you don't work a day in your life — and I truly feel like that, even when it's very busy,' she said.
But in the end, with her daughter taking on an ever-larger public role, the time has finally come for her to concentrate on supporting her family.
Carole said in 2021: 'The only thing I can say about being a mother is how much I loved it and still do. Mike was a good hands-on father and we found a way to make business and family life work.'
From BA air hostess and John Lewis trainee to the mother of the future Queen: Carole Middleton's extraordinary rise
Former British Airways hostess Carole Carole — whose father Ron was a painter and decorator and her mother, Dorothy, the granddaughter of a miner — spent her first six months in a council flat in Ealing.
It has been claimed some of Prince William's circle called her 'Doors to Manual' in reference to her past.
She says she was always driven and, keen to get on, took a job with the Prudential aged 16, but loathed it, returning to school where she gained four A-levels.
After John Lewis, she worked briefly as a secretary before becoming an air hostess, which she says was different back then.
'You had to speak another language. It was almost like being at university'.
![Kate Middleton and mother Carole visit the Spirit of Christmas shopping festival at London's Olympia. Carole started on the shop floor of John Lewis but quit because it was 'boring'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/71140763-12098867-image-a-31_1684420357825.jpg)
Kate Middleton and mother Carole visit the Spirit of Christmas shopping festival at London's Olympia. Carole started on the shop floor of John Lewis but quit because it was 'boring'
![The Duchess of Cambridge holds her son Prince George seated next to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William, back row from left, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry, Pippa Middleton, James Middleton, Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton, in an official christening photo for Prince George at Clarence House in London in October 2013](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/18/15/6932242-12098867-The_Duchess_of_Cambridge_holds_her_son_Prince_George_seated_next-a-30_1684420274207.jpg)
The Duchess of Cambridge holds her son Prince George seated next to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William, back row from left, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry, Pippa Middleton, James Middleton, Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton, in an official christening photo for Prince George at Clarence House in London in October 2013
It was there that she met Michael — a manager for an international air station and she organised their wedding, right down to the chilli con carne and bonfire in the evening.
Next came a brief stint in Jordan, where they embraced the social scene at the British Embassy before returning to the UK and the semi in Bradfield where, aged 32 and pregnant with baby James, she set up Party Pieces.
'It was a good idea or it wouldn't have taken off,' she says. And it did, like a rocket. From the wooden shed near the Wendy house in their back garden to a huge business operating from an impressive complex of Dutch barns in Berkshire.
Carole, meanwhile, never took her foot off the accelerator. She worked and provided a loving home — complete with white rabbit marshmallow birthday cakes. In July 2013, she and Mike moved into Bucklebury Manor, a £4.7 million pile with vast grounds.
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