Hunting for a buyer: Celebrity-favourite wellie-maker looks to cash in on post-Covid festival boom

Hunter Boot, which holds two royal warrants, has recruited advisers from AlixPartners to sound out potential acquirers

A Wellie-maker loved by celebrities such as Kate Moss is looking for a buyer. Hunter Boot, which holds two royal warrants, has recruited advisers from AlixPartners to sound out potential acquirers amid a post-Covid boom.

Founded in 1856 as the North British Rubber Company, the heritage footwear brand’s waterproof boots have been worn by Royals such as the late Princess Diana. The boots – which sell for £125 –have also been worn by celebrities such as Rita Ora, Alexa Chung, Daisy Lowe and Cara Delevingne. 

Demand for the brand’s boots have surged due to the return of music festivals this summer after the easing of pandemic restrictions. And the boots have become must-haves for festival goers after supermodel Moss wore them to Glastonbury in 2005.

Hunter is also expected to reap the rewards of Covid-19 restrictions in China being scrapped, with demand for high-end apparel from shoppers in this market set to rebound. 

Sales tanked amid the pandemic when shoppers were home-bound, causing the upmarket retailer to require a £18.5m lifeline from its investors. Since 2020, the business has been controlled by Goldman Sachs-backed investment vehicle Pall Mall Legacy. 

Edinburgh-based Hunter Boot is also nearing the completion of a £7million cash injection, in addition to separate discussions about an outright sale.

Alongside majority shareholder Pall Mall Legacy, other investors include Searchlight Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, and Pentland Group, the owner of sportswear brands like Speedo and Berghaus.

As the North British Rubber Company – founded in Scotland by Americans Henry Lee Norris and Spencer Thomas Parmelee – the company supplied rubber boots to the Army during the First and Second World Wars, after it was the first firm to manufacture the product in the UK.

Its most recent set of accounts revealed that the company posted a loss of £5.1million on sales of £108million in the year to January 2022.

It has physical stores in Bicester Village in Oxfordshire and Woodbury in New York. The business also opened a store in London’s Regent Street in 2014.

Although known for selling its range of Wellington boots, it has more recently launched a wider range of accessories and clothing, such as bags and puffer jackets.