AUSTIN, Texas--Burnes Home Accents, excluded from the sale of C.R. Gibson, has been left behind but not forgotten.
The frame and album company, which has been rebuilding since it emerged from a Chapter 11 filing in the summer of 2006, is not a fit candidate for a sale today, but will be a much more valuable company in the future, asserted Burnes executives in a recent conversation with HFN.
Last month, stationer CSS Industries announced plans to purchase C.R. Gibson, which has owned Burnes for the past 16 months. Burnes was not part of the sale and remains privately held by the Anderson family and its investment group.
When the sale was announced, Joseph Moore, president and vice chairman of C.R. Gibson, said in a statement that any structural changes to Burnes would be "premature and impractical."
And Jean-Rene Gougelet, the recently named president of Burnes, told HFN, "There is still a lot of work to be done. We are on the right track." The Anderson family would get a lot more money for Burnes in the future than it would today, should it decide to sell the company down the line, he added.
Although he declined to address whether there would be ongoing support from the Anderson family, Gougelet said, "We are on very safe ground financially. The C.R. Gibson sale is putting us on even stronger ground." --Allison Zisko
