After more than 20 successful years in the industry, gift supplier Bonnet Gifts has a new owner after a takeover by Lenan Corporation. Effective 2 May 2014 Bonnet Gifts will become a division of Lenan Corporation and will continue operating on a ‘business as usual’ basis, says Bonnet Gifts managing director Mal Walker.
“They would like to maintain the brand, Bonnet Gifts, and will operate the business as a division of Lenan Corporation,” he says. “Bonnet Gifts will be in the same locations at the Reed trade fairs, the website will be maintained and the logos will be the same.”
The Lenan sales team will absorb all the Bonnet Gifts customers and maintain an active role with all clients.
“The sourcing team has recently attended the China trade fairs and selected a large number of new items, I think around 500, so they will be keen to show these items to customers in the second half of the year,” he adds.
Walker explains he wanted to explore a range of options so he canvassed a select number of potential buyers and also received some interest from industry players. However, two opportunities arising at the same time resulted in the sale of Bonnet Gifts and Walker exiting the gift industry.
“The first is I have been offered a role as managing director of Australia for a large Swedish corporate and secondly I received an approach from Lenan Corporation to see if I would be interested in selling – so the timing of the two opportunities worked out nicely.”
The Bonnet Gifts brand will remain the same and Walker is confident its customers will benefit from the acquisition.
“I think Bonnet Gifts customers will be serviced by an experienced and capable sales team. There are greater resources available now to service customers in the field and in the office and I think the product range will be very dynamic and stylish. Customers can expect to buy stylish, functional and affordable products and have the ability to make strong retail margins.
“All our customers and suppliers are important to Bonnet Gifts and have helped to make the business strong over many years. We have enjoyed very good support and business cooperation and we hope this continues well into the future,” he adds.
