Buyers are circling Palmer & Harvey’s intellectual property (IP) assets, which includes its corporate brand, ahead of today's deadline for offers (7 February).

Palmer & Harvey, which delivered goods to 90,000 grocery and convenience stores, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and the Costcutter chain, called in administrators in November, after running up debts of more than £700m.

The sale, which is being conducted by IP firm Metis Partners, on the instructions of administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers, is targeted at distribution, wholesale, retail, supply chain management, E-commerce retail and brand acquisition firms.

On offer are the wholesaler’s heritage retail brand portfolio, registered trade marks, convenience store brands, branded website content, multiple domain names and key organisational knowledge.

Marketing material from Metis Partners aimed at potential buyers, states: “This is a unique opportunity to acquire the IP assets, including a significant brand portfolio of Palmer and Harvey, formerly the UK’s largest wholesaler.

“The company had a compelling nationwide reach, making 1.75 million deliveries to retailers across the UK every year.”

It adds: “Palmer and Harvey enjoyed strong relationships with notable clients across the retail sector, including two leading supermarkets, Tesco and Sainsbury’s; convenience forecourts operated by petroleum companies Esso and Shell; and the UK’s two largest service station firms, Moto and Welcome Break.

“IP assets owned by the company include international trade marks, website content and multiple domain names, a patent application for unique new technology, as well as rights in Palmer and Harvey’s brand and reputation.

“With the UK wholesale market set to expand by 0.9% annually until 2021, this is an exciting moment to use the Palmer and Harvey brand to capitalise on this predicted growth.”

Aylin Dzhafer, senior manager of IP valuation at Metis Partners, said the IP firm has received a number of enquiries from interested parties in the wholesale, retail, distribution and supply chain management sectors.

A petition started by a former employee at the wholesaler calling for an investigation has garnered more than 11,000 signatures to date.

Auctions recently took place to sell Palmer & Harvey's vehicle fleet.

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