POSTMAN Pat and Rupert Bear have been sold to America after the company founded by Hampshire Cricket chairman Rod Bransgrove was put into administration.
Debts of £125m saw Entertainment Rights put into administration yesterday and be immediately sold by administrators Deloitte to New Yorkbased Boomerang Media.
Mr Bransgrove stepped down as chairman of the company, which also owns rights to other famous names such as He-Man and Casper the Friendly Ghost, in February this year.
He had overseen growth in the business from a stage in 1999 when it had just 39 episodes of programming to an entertainment giant with 8,700 episodes of children’s favourites.
Entertainment Rights had been struggling under the weight of its heavy borrowings, which stood at £125m at the end of last August.
The firm axed a third of its 150 staff in December – and was among a number of firms, which have been hit by the collapse of high street chain Woolworths.
The business took an £800,000 hit after Woolworths’ CD and DVD distribution business, Entertainment UK, was put into administration.
EUK was a key distributor for the DVDs and other merchandise produced by the firm based on its TV characters.
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