Athena, the poster retailer who graced a generation of British bedrooms and gave the world The Tennis Girl, is to be sold, offering entrepreneurs and investors a rare opportunity to buy one of the high street’s most recognizable names outright.
BPI Asset Advisory, a RICS-regulated team of property surveyors and business advisers specializing in asset valuations and disposals, has been appointed to market the trademarks owned by Athena Licensing Ltd. The package contains two recently updated UK trademarks, including a stylized name and logo, and a newly updated EU trademark.
For anyone who grew up in the 1980s or 1990s, Athena needs little introduction. Founded in 1964, the chain grew to more than 160 stores nationwide at its peak, selling posters, prints and gifts that created a visual identity for youth bedrooms, student houses and first-rate apartments across the country.
Monochrome New York skylines, jazz photography, cool artwork and wallpaper all graced your tiles. Its most famous image, the 1976 Tennis Girl poster, is still recognized around the world 50 years on, alongside iconic pieces including L’Enfant, Beyond City Limits and Jimmy Cauty’s 1976 Lord of the Rings masterpiece.
Andrew Cromack, director at BPI Asset Advisory, said: “Athena is a name that instantly resonates with generations of people across the UK. Brands with this level of recognition and cultural connection rarely come to market, making this a unique opportunity to acquire a genuine piece of British retail history.”
For SME owners, sales are a useful reminder that a brand can outlive the business that created it. Athena joins a long list of high street names that have disappeared from Britain’s city centres, yet its signage, kept fresh and tidy, remains a commodity decades after the last store closed its doors.
That is not an accident. A registered trademark can be licensed, sold or used as collateral for a loan, which is why advisers urge founders to think carefully about whether to trade a business name, logo or both early on. Athena’s owners have renewed both UK marks and EU registrations before bringing them to market, keeping the goods clean for the buyer. Anyone who wants to know what is protected can check the UK trade mark register run by the Intellectual Property Office.
The consumer’s commercial sense is equally clear. Heritage names carry built-in recognition that can cost millions to build from scratch, and nostalgia marketing has proven a powerful drag, with research suggesting consumers loosen their purse strings when reminded of happier times. Athena’s continued presence in popular culture, discussed recently in Alan Carr’s television series Changing Ends, suggests that the love is not over.
The obvious route for the new owner is to license the invention instead of re-opening stores: putting the Athena name on prints, household items or publishing with partners who bear the risk of production while the brand owner collects the profits.
BPI says the sale will suit investors, brand owners, licensing businesses and media groups looking for an established intellectual property with a strong history and continued cultural relevance.
Anyone who buys it will get more than two logos and a brand name. They will own the all-time shorthand for British youth, and in a crowded market, that kind of instant recognition rarely sells.
