Office is accelerating plans to expand across Europe as the footwear retailer’s owners consider a sale or an IPO of the company.

Private equity owner Silverfleet Capital has hired JP Morgan to provide advice on what exit route to take after four years of ownership.

It is understood the company could be valued in excess of £300m. The valuation comes after Silverfleet bought the retailer for £150m from Sir Tom Hunter’s West Coast Capital in December 2010.

Office is in the process of opening up stores in Germany and has already opened standalone shops in Oberhausen, Bonn and Dusseldorf as part of its international expansion. It is believed the retailer is also exploring launching in other geographies in Europe.

The footwear retailer, which has 108 shops in the UK and Germany, plans to open another store in Hamburg this week and a Cologne store in February as it continues its international roll-out.

Office will report a 5% increase in sales to £256m for the year ending January 26 later this week.

The footwear retailer’s sales in the first six months of the year were affected by unseasoanble weather conditions, which impacted on spring sales and resulted in a 3% decrease in like-for-likes during the first half.

However, after strong trading in the second half the business expects to record EBITDA of £34m during the period.

Office chief executive Brian McCluskey: “Despite tough retail conditions at the start of the last financial year, Office has demonstrated strong growth.

“We are proud to have taken the Office brand international with our first four overseas shops opening in Germany and an additional twelve new stores opening in the UK in just under two years.”

“We are now selling to more customers throughout the world through our enhanced e-commerce platform. We pride ourselves on understanding our customers’ needs and the investment that we made into e-commerce during 2014 was driven by just that. 

“We will continue to invest in this side of the business in order to further enhance our multi-channel business offering and to offer our customers the highest levels of service.”

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