New owner The Carlyle Group is preparing to unload Very Group in a £2bn+ auction just weeks after it acquired the North West ecommerce giant. Barclays and JP Morgan have been lined up to advise on the sale, according to Sky News, with a formal auction process expected to begin shortly.
Plans for a sale were disclosed in a filing at Companies House by administrators to VGL Holdco, a corporate entity that previously had, but no longer has, operational links to the Liverpool ecommerce giant and successor to the Littlewoods catalogue shopping behemoth, and its immediate successor Shop Direct.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was appointed as administrator to VGL Holdco in November, a move that enabled Carlyle – a long-standing major creditor – to swoop in a few days later and assume ownership of the retailer for a nominal £1.
In documents filed at Companies House today, PwC said an M&A process would be “run on a basis and timescale consistent with what would be expected for a business the size of the operating group.”
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The group had injected several hundred million pounds into The Very Group’s capital structure, initially providing support during the Covid pandemic in 2021. That backing, including a further £85 million investment in 2024, ultimately paved the way for Carlyle to take ownership under the terms of its financing arrangements.
Retail industry sources value The Very Group at between £2 billion and £2.5 billion, following what the company described as a “strong” financial year.
For the 12 months to 28 June 2025, The Very Group reported record earnings, with adjusted EBITDA rising 15.9% to £307.1 million – the highest in its history.
Founded by John Moores and his brother Cecil in 1923, Littlewoods was initially a football pools company, which used its network of pools agents and printing company (founded in 1928) to establish itself as a catalogue retailer in the 1930s. In November 2002, the Moores family sold Littlewoods to the Barclay brothers for £750 million. Littlewoods also owned the Index chain of stores.
The company has also acquired at various points in its history fellow home shopping giants including Manchester’s erstwhile Great Universal Stores, which was merged with Littlewoods following the Barclays’ takeover, and Kays Catalogue which, although founded in Worcester, became a part of Great Universal in 1937.
