Carole and Michael Middleton’s Party Pieces was completely insolvent. The (bankruptcy) court had to step in and basically sell off Party Pieces because it was so debt-ridden, and it’s likely that the Middletons made nothing from the sale of their company. The court facilitated the sale of PP to a man named James Sinclair, who operates the Teddy Tastic Bear Company. It’s likely that Sinclair only “bought” PP for a fraction of its outstanding debt. So, the British media is trying and failing to put a positive spin on this Middleton fiasco because no one apparently has the stomach to investigate why the Middletons are in such dire financial straits and why their super-successful company was a house of cards. Thus, they must have paid this James Sinclair guy to recite some talking points about how Carole Middleton is a brilliant businesswoman.
The millionaire Essex tycoon who bought Carole Middleton’s Party Pieces business after it fell into administration says the Princess of Wales’s mother is an ‘inspirational businesswoman’ – and the royal family are lucky to have her. James Sinclair, 37, started his first business aged just 15 and now runs a £30 million leisure empire that includes an ice cream company, nurseries, soft pay centres and a variety of children’s attractions.
He took over Party Pieces – which was launched by the Princess of Wales’ parents Carole and Michael Middleton on their kitchen table 36 years ago, for an undisclosed amount. It had fallen into administration and was bought by the Teddy Tastic Bear Company, which is owned by Mr Sinclair. The 12 current employees will be working for him. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Mr Sinclair said Carole chose to sell to him because she backs his plans to ‘get kids away from screens’.
‘I’m very excited by this new venture and we will be operating our own firm called Crafty Pieces within the Party Pieces brand,’ he said. ‘It’s going to focus mainly on products for children and be a spinoff of the Party Pieces brand which was set up by Carol and her husband and was a fantastic operation for more than 30 years. We started speaking around three months ago and we got on really well, she is an inspirational businesswoman, and she is very clever, intelligent and the Royal Family are fortunate to have her. We will be marketing slime teddy bears and lots of hands-on things for children to play with and Carole was delighted with the ideas that we had. We both said the main thing was to get kids away from screens and we want to preserve the Party Pieces brand that she helped set up and she will still be available on the telephone for us.’
The businessman added: ‘We have been talking for the last three months and we both said we wanted to really preserve the brand and that’s what we are going to do. We have a few things to sort out and get things onto a stable footing but in the long-term things look great.’
Sources said that the sale of Party Pieces had been carried out through what is known as a pre-pack administration, meaning that the firm had appointed insolvency practitioners before it was sold without some of its liabilities.
Mr Sinclair said: ‘What I will say is that Carole has exceptional entrepreneurial flair and it’s an exciting brand to be within with. We are going to get behind and it and make it a driving force for the UL economy. She’s almost 70 years old but is still full of energy and we held discussions over the telephone and at their place, and it’s quite clear she is also a busy grandparent. She is hard working and as a consequence we can see that in Kate, the Princess of Wales and the Royal Family are fortunate to have both of them, you can really see Carole in Kate.’
Carole “is very clever, intelligent and the Royal Family are fortunate to have her” and “The Royal Family are fortunate to have both of them, you can really see Carole in Kate…” Ouch. Granted, it sounds like Mr. Sinclair was reading off some notes given to him by a Daily Mail editor, but YIKES. Carole Middleton doesn’t work for the Windsors! Kate is not hard-working! Anyway, I imagine James Sinclair has big plans to monetize the Middleton/royal connections of his purchase of the deeply discounted Party Pieces. That’s what this sounds like – he’s workshopping a rebrand which will be royal-adjacent-adjacent. I would love to know how much he paid for Party Pieces too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Party Pieces’ Instagram.
-
- Carole Middleton The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Service, West Door, Westminster Abbey, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724158170, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
-
- Michael and Carole Middleton arriving at Westminster Abbey, central London, ahead of the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.,Image: 774175111, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Milligan / Avalon
-
- Carole Middleton arriving at Westminster Abbey, central London, ahead of the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.,Image: 774175184, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Milligan / Avalon
-
- Carole Middleton, Michael Middleton, Pippa Middleton and James Middleton at the Coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom, on 06 May 2023.,Image: 774203418, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
-
- Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton arrive at the Coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom, on 06 May 2023.,Image: 774248529, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Phil Harris / Avalon
-
- Arrivals at Westminster Abbey ahead of the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla Featuring: Carole Middleton Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: Cover Images
6 months from now when he realizes he bought a money pit, he’ll be singing a different tune.
I doubt he doesn’t know.
He bought it, like Kaiser said, for the free advertising that comes with TRF. I bet he’ll expand that to himself and his other businesses.
“I imagine James Sinclair has big plans to monetize the Middleton/royal connections of his purchase of the deeply discounted Party Pieces”, asKaiser said… I bet we’ll soon see his company sponsoring arly years and getting free publicity
I actually laughed out loud at this. Just so excessive, like they didn’t just slip in a kind and believable word. The desperation.
6 months when the divorce is announced. What is he going to be saying then?
Oh dear Mr. Sinclair—you bought a dud, insolvent, bankrupt company and you’re singing praises about the entrepreneurial flare of its previous owner???? What am I missing here?
Apparently, he did not assume responsibility for Party Pieces’ debt, the bulk of which stays with the Middletons. No matter how Mr. Sinclair polishes that turd, it is only good for a tax write off . The question is who will Carole tap for the remaining debt? Willy again?
The Middletons, including Kate, are begging William not to ditch them. That’s all I got outta this.
I wonder what skeletons Carole is hiding in her closet (other than PP being a clear flop) for such embiggening articles to come out.
That these talking points are meant for Will is also what I’m taking from this. It’s giving me Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn vibes.
So what happens to the party pieces Walmart partnership in US? Does Carole still have control of PP outside of UK?
LOL
ShopRite.
Uh oh Carole is having to cover for Can’ts upstaging Chuckles by letting them know just how important she is to the royal cult family. Or may it’s because she also has some goods on her dear son-in-law.
See Susan, the question I want answered is “why are they lucky to have another failed business person in the family, surely the two they already have is enough!? Maybe she will be employed as a full time nanny 😂😂
Curiouser and curiouser. Please tell me someone, somewhere is writing a huge exposé on this family. I would settle for someone simply asking the right questions…
A lost cause, I think. The bm has shown that it has resorted to pure fiction for clicks, with articles ranging from oleaginous sycophancy of totally unworthy individuals to vicious hate speech inciting physical harm to innocent people. And of course, this utter drivel leaching from the tabloids suits the Tories down to the ground as they relentlessly drive Britain into the ground with their disgusting corruption, wholesale ransacking of social services, gerrymandering….the list goes on and on and on.
@Fishface, I applaud your wide-ranging vocabulary! For the first time in forever, I ran to Google to find the definition of oleaginous, and the meaning is absolutely perfect. Obsequious, oily, greasy….
Yikes on bikes this is desperate PR. But after yesterday’s article on Will &Kate’s fighting, I wonder if the “fortunate ” is because Carole convinces Kate to put up with Will and endure abuse.
I can believe that. I can definitely believe that kate has gone to her mother in the past because of the state of her marriage. And her mother saying to just get on with it.
Plus, I think Carole knows a thing or 2 about her son in law that the son in law in question definitely doesn’t want public.
So the Windsors should be fortunate also because Carole is keeping silent.
I couldn’t help reading this differently, like “The royal family is lucky to have her. Good riddance.”
Idk, to me this reads like James Sinclair is desperately trying to rebrand PP into something that will make money? I’m not sure he’s trying to say that CM is a great business woman because he truly believes she is, but because saying that will protect his investment so to speak.
This is what I think. He’s not just selling paper plates with the brand anymore. And he’s protecting the brand by appeasing the royalists.
it sounds like a child wrote the talking points – she’s very pretty and clever and even though she’s old she can still do things.
Yes! And the child had to be the DM writer. Why on earth would this supposedly successful businessperson mention Carole’s age?
His comments are so extraneous and therefore so obviously fed as to beggar belief.
Feel there was an exchange that went like this:
CarolE: Right, here’s a bag of cash to take this failed business of Party Tat, sorry Pieces, off our hands.
Sinclair: *pockets cash* Ta. And the Knighthood?
CarolE: Yes, here’s the signed note that when Kate is Kween – and Willy is King as well, obvs, haha – you shall receive a Knighthood.
Sinclair: Right. And what is it I’m saying about you?
CarolE: You shall tell the world that I am a BRILLIANT businesswoman, the bestest ever, that I am very young for my age, that I am a huge asset to the Royal Family, that Kate has inherited all my best qualities, did I mention being a business genius? That I am beautiful and kind and wonderful and erm, remind them that I still have the grandchildren in my claws and er, just REALLY rich and successful despite the fact that my company has just totally fallen over and I’ve had to pay you to take it off my hands.
Sinclair: Riiiggghht.
You may be more right than you realise!
Crafts are an interesting place to go here. I’m surprised he actually is bothering to do something with it; it did sound more like a tax write-off.
I think it’s very possible that Carole did a good job with the business in the early years (ha), but the changing economy (with easy ordering through the Internet), and then Covid shutting down parties, just put the nail in the coffin. Carole was too distracted by Kate’s drama to fix the business.
So I’m really not in the camp to ridicule Carole about party pieces itself. Now, thinking about the next door “agricultural” fields next to her house and investigating uncle Gary are something else altogether.
Same. The business (likely with help from her brother) allowed them to pay for homes, vacations, put their children through school and launch them into society. The business has now run its course (like many businesses) especially with the changing landscape that you mentioned.
I don’t have any love for the Middletons, including Kate, but I won’t 💩 on them for this. However, watching how the Middletons begin to cannibalize the House of Windsor over the next few decades will be interesting.
The Middletons won’t cannibalize the house of Chuck. The Parker-Bowels will have already done that. WanK will be left bones to feed on. The vultures are already circling. Chuck should hope for that apples press accident! (He’d at least then get ALL the attention).
Mike parents trust fund paid for his children education, Pippa got a scholarship in sports to attend college.
Coke head brother probably use the company to clean his money, since they could not sell customers addresses the bottom fell out, and this was before Covid.
With Amazon around PP didn’t stand a chance.
Pippa had all the chances to be successful but she was too boring, thank goodness, Matthews was on the lookout.
This is idiotic. It makes it sound as if CarolE had her pick of eager suitors clamoring to save her dead company from bankruptcy, and she picked the cutest successor she could with his slime teddy bears and groveling praise for her. When in reality she is lucky to have found a buyer, she won’t be participating in the future of the brand, and there is no way slime teddy bears are going to pry children away from their screens for more than five minutes. It also sounds as if he visited Middleton Manor and heard CarolE bossing Kate around, which is what I think he means when he said there is a lot of CarolE in Kate.
And what the heck is a slime teddy bear anyway???? How was there any connection to that type of product and party pieces? I don’t see how someone who markets that type of thing would continue with a party pieces/craft pieces type of business.
Party pieces has been dead for a while but refused to lie down. That business was milked by the Middleton for cash to honey trap their daughters to marry rich men. Now we are seeing headlines about Kate going bankrupt if she divorces William. What gives?
The amount he paid for the business will most likely be disclosed in the administrators’ report in due course (which is public). One point that people seem to gloss over is that liabilities have been left behind – this means that the sale price was not enough to pay all of the creditors, so they will lose money. It’s also highly misleading the way that the Daily Mail refers to their ‘brush’ with administration / bankruptcy. It is literally in insolvent administration.
That’s what I noticed too — the leftover liabilities. Maybe Middleton Manor will be up for sale soon…
Talk about cashing in on the royal connections LOLz. As for Ma she’s now free to work overtime to save the Wails marriage and protect her royal investment. Am still convinced that she’s going to end up working with Catty is some manner as a paid royal advisor – its coming as Catty is going to need her mother to help her deal with Cams and her PR games.
Carole as Kate’s Private Secretary? I can see it.
Didn’t know Uncle Gary goes by James Sinclair now.
Even Uncle Gary isn’t as nauseating about his sister as this.
😹
Wouldn’t it be amazing if an enterprising journalist did a deep dive on the Midds and Uncle Gary? This is such a juicy story! I get why the UK reporters don’t want to go there, but an American could. 😉
I pray every day for Ronan Farrow to do a deep dive on the Middletons – including Kate and Willy’s marriage.
As amazing as that would be, the Middletons are truly nobodies. I doubt any big name journalists would have any interest.
Yes but Peggy is not a nobody and my fantasy deep dive includes how he paid for Bucklebury manor, how CarolE manipulated him as a young man and how, despite being well dodgy and backed by drug money, they have wormed their way into the heart of the Royal Family and are grandparents of the future King. Find me a journalist who wouldn’t want to break that story (and who isn’t British and therefore too scared/craven to do so…)
Jfc. This reads as if Sinclair typed “Carole Middleton Kate Middleton Party pieces royal family entrepreneur ass kiss” into ChatGPT and it spit out this “article”.
Yep, agreed. Total final ass-kiss before Party Pieces goes to its great reward. Bye-bye. And what’s Carole done to her face?
Completely agree. Utter tripe.
I guess Carole has a new person to embiggen her and Kate in the press.
If I was him I would make Carole work for me, for atleast a year. I would keep her old picture up and ask her to stage new ones.
Again. The middletons don’t seem to have any solid business leads. No one threw Kate a bone by using the middleton party supply business. This new owner needs to pull all the tricks to get his money’s worth. Can’t feel too bad because he has to know party pieces was badly run.
Honestly, Carole looks like has had a mild stroke. The difference in her face over the last 6 months seems like more than just bad botox.
Marketing slime teddy bears? He should get Prince Andrew to do the commercial!
Bahahaha!
You know who else is a “brilliant” business person who has had MULTIPLE bankruptcies (4, I think)? Our Orange One, the insidious, horrible trump. Bollocks to all that.
TaraBarbara, I agree that something major had gone on with her face– a failed face lift?
Somebody has a Creative Writing degree! LOL