New owner of Peterborough’s Ideal World TV says staff are vital and commits to stay in city

Ideal Home live shopping channel studios at Newark Road, Peterborough EMN-210719-231507009

Entrepreneur and investor Hamish Morjaria has pledged the long-established company, based in Newark Road, where it has 250 staff, will remain in the city and benefit from future investment.

He said: “Ideal World TV has a long history in Peterborough. The team is a key part of what makes this business so good. We have taken every employee from Ideal World TV and also a large number of those who were in shared services of the larger group.

“It was an important consideration for us to commit to as many people as we could. We will continue to invest in the area.”

Mr Morjaria, who has held senior leadership roles in global technology, distribution, wholesale and retail firms and most recently as chairman of on-premises food and drink order-and-pay application FETCH, bought Ideal World for an undisclosed sum from equity management company Aurelius Equity Opportunities.

He said: “It is a unique proposition. Shoppable content is something that many brands and retailers are investing in right now.

“Ideal World TV has the talent, infrastructure and experience to create long and short form content for both broadcast and streaming channels.”

Outlining his hopes for Ideal, Mr Morjaria said: “I’ll build on the 21-year heritage of Ideal World TV, bringing in new brands and offers to our customers via TV shopping and developing our capabilities to do the same on social media and streaming channels.”

The sale of Ideal World comes a month after its sister brand, Create and Craft, which together made up Ideal Shopping Direct, was sold to Hochandra Global, of Oundle.

Hochandra Global was created in 2015 by Paul Wright and Valarie Kaye, who together had founded Ideal World in 2000 before selling the business 11 years later.

An argument broke out between Ideal Shopping and Hochandra three years ago after the Hochandra owners claimed to have found rude words directed at the company in a Create and Craft puzzle book.

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