How Aurelius’s rosy outlook turned into administration: four case studies illustrate the case for caution and due diligence before partnering with Aurelius
Firms considering acquiring Moveero or partnering with Aurelius should consider Aurelius’s track record. Since 2020, six Aurelius portfolio companies—Moveero, ceiling manufacturer Zentia, technology distribution and specialist service provider Exertis, cosmetic retailer The Body Shop, construction company Building Partners Group, and book wholesaler Bertrams —have gone through the administration process, disrupting communities and displacing workers.
From A (Armstrong) to Z (Zentia) and then back to A (Administration)
Aurelius acquired Armstrong Ceiling Solutions, a manufacturer of mineral ceiling tiles, suspension grids and floating ceiling systems, in March 2020. At the time, the firm had over 260 employees at two production facilities in the North East of England and three distribution centers located in the UK, Germany and Spain.
The firm was rebranded to Zentia later in 2020, reporting “We were Armstrong; now we are Zentia. We’ve gone from A to Z, introduced a bright and dynamic colour palette and centred our business around our new brand AXIS – four key elements which underpin our new direction.”
Zentia entered administration on June 8, 2026. In accounts for the year to December 31 2024, Zentia reported turnover (UK term for the total income a company generates from selling goods or services during a specific period, before deducting operating expenses or costs) of approximately £48.1 million, down from £54.7 million a year earlier, while falling from an operating profit of around £3.4 million to a loss of £2.4 million. Like at Moveero, Interpath was appointed to conduct the administration. Zentia laid off 170 workers when the 169-year-old firm collapsed.
Exertis: Acquisition to Administration in Seven Months
In November 2025, Aurelius acquired Exertis, a hardware distribution business with £2bn in annual revenues. Aurelius Managing Director Andrzej Cebrat said at the time that Exertis offered “significant operational improvement potential.”
However, only one month after the purchase, five Exertis executives had jumped ship, the firm entered a formal 54-day consultation period and media outlets reported that the Exertis UK workforce could be reduced from about 1,300 employees to approximately 130.
Administrator Turpin Barker Armstrong was appointed to oversee Exertis on May 29, 2026, and IT Channel Oxygen reported only about 70 staff remained on payroll.
Exertis, in its administration filings, stated that the change in ownership affected its relationship with credit insurers, which in turn, affected supplier confidence, product availability, and working capital requirements.
The Body Shop: Over a thousand layoffs, hundreds of closed stores and a mass sacking over Microsoft Teams
Aurelius purchased beauty supplier The Body Shop in November 2023 for £207 million. Only two months later, the Body Shop’s UK and German branches both entered the administration process.
In March 2024, The Body Shop fired 270 head office staff over Microsoft Teams, telling them that they would not be paid beyond the end of the day and would not receive a redundancy (severance) package. According to reporting in the Independent, the company admitted it did not follow “normal regulations” on properly consulting employees or their representatives before dismissing them, saying there was “insufficient time” to do so.
In total, the Body Shop closed hundreds of stores across the United States, Canada, the U.K., Denmark and Germany and laid off over a thousand workers.
Industry observers and lawmakers criticized Aurelius surrounding the Body Shop’s collapse. Dame Siobhain McDonagh, a Labour MP on the Commons’ Treasury select committee, said: “Just before Christmas, Aurelius released a statement saying they would ‘re-energise the business’ and ‘deliver the next chapter of success.’ Less than three months later they are putting the brand into liquidation and look like they are first in line to be paid. You have to question their sincerity. Did they ever intend to grow the business?”
The Telegraph reported that the Body Shop collapsed after HSBC withdrew a line of credit and Aurelius failed to secure new funding. Aurelius claimed it was never made aware of HSBC’s decision to end its relationship with the retailer.
Aurelius drives Bertrams, the second-largest book wholesaler in the UK, into the ground
After initially offering £10.6m for Connect Books, Aurelius acquired the UK-based wholesaler for only £6m in February 2018. Elsie Bertram and her son Kip founded the firm in 1968 in a chicken shed in the garden of a Norwich home before “blossoming into the second-largest wholesaler of books in the UK.”
At the time, Aurelius’s Dirk Markus said, “We look forward to working with the company to provide the financial and operational support that will allow the business to reach its full potential.”
On June 19, 2020, Bertrams Books (renamed after the Aurelius acquisition) entered administration.
Administrators Turpin Barker Armstrong cited falling demand and in-person shop closures from COVID-19, and said the majority of Bertrams’ employees had been let go, with a small number retained to manage the winding down of operations.
According to the Daily Mail, Kip Bertram “disputed the claims of the administrators over the reasons for the collapse and the loss of nearly 450 jobs, saying: ‘It’s nothing to do with e-Books or Covid-19 – people still like to hold and smell books.’”
The Bookseller reported complaints from Bertrams’ customers in a June 19, 2020 article entitled “We are Bertrams’ ‘collateral damage’, say indie publishers.”
- An email sent by Central Books indicated that payments from Bertrams had been late “for over a year” and emails addressing discrepancies were going unanswered. “Nobody got in touch from Bertrams,” publisher Gracie Cooper said. “We’ve had no information. This is a major hit for any publisher.”
- Sam Jordison of Central Books said: “Bertrams was obviously having trouble last year, but things started to get better. The reason we’ve been hit is because they haven’t paid their December dues. It’s pretty outrageous. We’ve heard nothing from them and it really feels like they’ve strung us along quite a bit.”
- Diane Slaney of Candlestick Press said: “I imagine that this is an extra strain and worry being shared by many independent publishers right now. It would be good to know what was going on in the minds of management and shareholders at the end of last year when Bertrams was already in difficulty, long before any hint of a global pandemic. We have unpaid invoices going back to November 2019. Could this sorry situation have been avoided with more transparency and collaborative help across the industry?”
Based on a review of Aurelius’ history, short seller Gotham City Research reported in 2017 that 60% of portfolio companies entered insolvency after Aurelius sold them. Aurelius responded by calling the Gotham City Research’s conclusions “substantially incorrect”, announcing a stock share buy-back plan, and promising a “strong exit pipeline and interest in its subsidiaries.”