A HOUSEHOLD and beauty products firm has shed 128 jobs after the brand name was sold following a period of administration.

Kleeneze, which has bases in Accrington and Heywood, had its intellectual properties which included the trademarks, domain names, websites and social media accounts, to Ultimate Products in Oldham.

The Lancashire Telegraph reported in April that the firm had ceased trading after a fall in sales.

Kleeneze, which began trading in 1923 as a direct sales organisation, sells and distributes a wide range of household and beauty products through an active network of around 5,000 independent self-employed sales distributors across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

David Acland and Anthony Collier, of FRP Advisory, were appointed joint administrators in April.

Mr Acland said: “The sale of the Kleeneze brand and associated intellectual property is a part of the administration process to recover value on behalf of creditors.

“Unfortunately it was not possible to find a buyer for the business as a whole. This has meant that 128 employees have unfortunately been made redundant since April 12, with 12 staff remaining to manage the orderly wind-down of the company.

“We know anecdotally that many of those made redundant have been successful in finding alternative employment and every support is being provided to all those affected.”

Ultimate Products says it now plans to relaunch the Kleeneze brand with a range of laundry and floorcare products for sale in stores and via online channels.

Kleeneze sold a range of homeware, health and beauty, clothing and Christmas products. The stock has also been sold by Charterfields.

Simon Showman, chief executive of Ultimate Products, said: “We are delighted to be adding such a well-established and highly-regarded brand as Kleeneze to our portfolio of British brands.

“It has an outstanding heritage with a long-standing reputation for value and quality, and we look forward very much to relaunching it with a new and innovative laundry and floorcare range.

“This deal is consistent with our track record of making opportunistic acquisitions of brands and then successfully relaunching them, the most notable example of which was the purchase of Beldray in 2009, which is now our best-performing brand.”

Ian Maycock, of Charterfields, who handled the sale, said: “Kleeneze was once one of the UK’s most popular homeware brands but unfortunately as a catalogue company, failed to adapt to the changing online retail market. We hope that Ultimate Products can help to revive this much-loved brand.”