Sainsbury’s is the latest retailer to make an offer for Planet Organic in a last-minute rescue bid for the organic supermarket brand.
According to reports from Sky News, the grocer has made an offer for the brand’s name and intellectual property assets rather than its store portfolio, as part of an ongoing insolvency process.
Industry insiders revealed the grocer’s interest was “speculative” and downplayed the chances of a deal being finalised.
Planet Organic – which trades from just over a dozen stores and employs roughly 360 people – has extended its original notice of intention to appoint insolvency practitioners, with a.
A final decision as to the company’s future is expected to be announced later this week.
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This latest development comes after rivals – including health food retailer Holland & Barrett and upmarket supermarket Waitrose – have also been in talks with the struggling retailer’s advisers in recent weeks.
Planet Organic first put administrators on standby at the end of March as it looked to raise additional funds to secure its future, with city sources saying it needed a multimillion-pound cash injection in order to survive.
Waitrose had pulled out of last-minute talks to acquire a stake in the supermarket chain just a few days earlier.
Other businesses which have pitched an offer included Redbus Ventures, an investment vehicle set up by one of the founders of Lovefilm.
Planet Organic chief executive George Dymond said that although the business has been “extremely busy fundraising” to support its store expansion plan, it had “not got back to the levels of sales that we were seeing before the pandemic”.
He said that Planet Organic has “taken every possible action” to improve its position, “including additional investment from our existing shareholders.”
