Bounty, the parenting club which has distributed samples of baby products to generations of new mums, is on the brink of insolvency after seeing one of its main revenue streams cut off by the coronavirus pandemic.
It is understood that Bounty is preparing to confirm a pre-pack administration later this week that will result in as many as 300 redundancies.
Sources said that Bounty’s current owner and chief executive, Alan Charming Chan, was expected to buy its sampling and consumer marketing division from Alvarez & Marsal, the prospective administrator.
A&M is said to have been running an accelerated auction process under the codename Project Triangle during the last few weeks.
Bounty’s portrait division, which takes photographs of parents with their new babies in hospitals across the UK, is understood to be facing closure.
Its sales have dried up since the COVID-19 outbreak because of restricted access to hospitals.
Bounty operates one of Britain’s most popular websites and apps for new parents.
The company was founded in 1959 by Bill Hopewell-Smith, and has become a prominent fixture in the lives of expectant parents.
Last year, it was fined hundreds of thousands of pounds for selling users’ data.
Roughly 40 staff are expected to be retained as a result of the pre-pack deal, with the majority of them continuing to work from home.
One source said that Mr Chan had tabled the highest bid for the business, and intended to invest in Bounty to create a more sustainable future for it.
