What the Flying Tiger deal involves

Modella is nearing an agreement with a banking consortium led by Danske Bank and Nordea to take control of Flying Tiger Copenhagen, the Danish homeware and stationery retailer, according to a report in City AM. The deal is expected to be announced imminently.

Flying Tiger reported turnover of more than 5.2 billion Danish krone (approximately £600m) in 2024, according to the company's filings. The retailer operates around 900 stores across 30 European markets, including 80 in the UK, and holds franchise agreements in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Israel.

The chain underwent a creditor-led restructuring in early 2025 that placed control with a coalition led by former chief executive Martin Jermiin, former finance chief Christian Kofoed Hertz Jakobsen, and the two Nordic banks. Flying Tiger is now led by Jens Aarup Mikkelsen as chief executive, and financial advisers have been exploring a sale since the start of 2026, according to City AM.

For Modella, the acquisition would represent a significant expansion of its international footprint. The firm's existing portfolio is overwhelmingly domestic, centred on the 480 former WH Smith high street stores it acquired for £40m in 2025 and rebranded as TG Jones.

Modella's acquisition record: a pattern of buy-and-restructure

Modella Capital was formed as Tailer Debtco in 2022 before being renamed a year later, according to City AM. It is owned by Hay Wain Group, the family office founded by turnaround specialist Jamie Constable. The firm's chairman is Steve Curtis, described as a well-known investor in the retail sector, and its managing director is Joseph Price.

The firm has acquired a string of high street retailers in recent years. Several have entered administration shortly after purchase.

Modella bought Claire's Accessories before pushing the chain into administration. It also acquired Original Factory Shop, which subsequently closed all its stores. In both cases, the firm cited weak consumer confidence and what it described as "adverse government fiscal policies," according to City AM.

The WH Smith high street acquisition followed a similar trajectory. Modella purchased the 480 stores and rebranded them under the previously unknown TG Jones name. It is now preparing to shut as many as a quarter of those sites, according to a report in The Times. Modella has said the closures are necessary to save the retailer from bankruptcy.

The pattern is consistent: acquire a distressed or underperforming chain at a low price, rebrand or restructure, and then close a substantial portion of the estate. Whether this constitutes a genuine turnaround strategy or a mechanism for extracting residual value from declining retail assets is a question that Flying Tiger's stakeholders will need to weigh carefully.

The TG Jones fee controversy and what it signals

The TG Jones situation has drawn particular scrutiny because of revelations about internal fee arrangements between Modella and the retailer it controls.

Modella is charging TG Jones millions of pounds for the use of the TG Jones brand name, a name that Modella itself created when it rebranded the former WH Smith stores, as reported by The Guardian. The brand has no independent heritage; it is, in The Guardian's description, a "fictitious family brand."

This arrangement means that fees flow from the operating retailer, which employs staff and holds lease obligations, back to the private equity owner for the use of intellectual property the owner itself devised. The structure is not unusual in private equity, where management fees, brand licensing charges, and advisory payments are common mechanisms for extracting returns. But in a business simultaneously preparing mass store closures and citing the risk of bankruptcy, the optics are stark.

For landlords and suppliers dealing with TG Jones, the fee structure raises a direct question: how much of the operating company's cash flow is being redirected to the parent before decisions about store viability are made?

"The owner claims this move is necessary to save the retailer from bankruptcy, but it has emerged that Modella is charging TG Jones millions of pounds for the use of its fictitious brand name."

That tension, reported by City AM, sits at the heart of the broader debate about Modella's approach.

What Flying Tiger's UK landlords and suppliers should consider

Flying Tiger's 80 UK stores represent a meaningful high street presence, concentrated in city centres and shopping centres. If Modella completes the acquisition, landlords holding Flying Tiger leases will effectively become counterparties to the same firm that is closing up to 120 former WH Smith sites across the country.

The international scale of Flying Tiger, with operations in 30 markets and turnover of roughly £600m, makes it a materially different proposition from Claire's Accessories or Original Factory Shop. It is a larger, more complex business with a broader geographic base. That complexity could insulate it from the rapid wind-down pattern seen in Modella's previous acquisitions, or it could simply mean the eventual restructuring, if one comes, is larger in scope.

Suppliers should note the precedent. In each of Modella's prior acquisitions, the period between purchase and administration or significant restructuring has been relatively short. Suppliers extending credit terms to a Modella-owned Flying Tiger would be doing so with full visibility of that track record.

Employees across Flying Tiger's UK estate face similar uncertainty. The chain employs thousands of people worldwide, according to City AM. Any restructuring of the UK operations under new ownership could involve store closures, redundancies, or changes to terms and conditions.

A broader question for the high street

The Modella model, whether intentional or not, raises a structural question about the role of private equity in high street retail. When a firm acquires distressed chains at low valuations, charges internal fees, and then restructures or liquidates the operating businesses, the financial risk is borne disproportionately by employees, landlords, and trade creditors rather than by the acquiring entity.

This is not unique to Modella. It reflects a well-established pattern in PE-backed retail, from BHS to Debenhams. But Modella's rapid accumulation of chains, and the speed with which several have entered distress post-acquisition, concentrates the pattern in a way that is difficult to overlook.

Flying Tiger's international footprint and established brand recognition may make it a genuinely different proposition. Equally, the acquisition may simply represent the next iteration of a familiar playbook. For the landlords, suppliers, and staff connected to those 80 UK stores, the distinction matters a great deal.