Online retailer The Hut Group has acquired two loss-making businesses from Findel for around £600,000.

The acquisitions of Confetti Network and ‘I Want One of Those.com’ (IWOOT) were made through Hut’s wholly owned subsidiary Metro Holdings. The retail businesses are operations of Findel’s subsidiary CWIO, which made a combined pre-tax loss of £13.8 million in the year to April 2010. The acquired companies have combined gross assets of £5.7 million and net liabilities of £19.3 million.

IWOOT is an online gifts and gadgets retailer and Confetti is a wedding accessory retailer and advice website with five UK stores and a mail order business.

Founded in 1955, Findel has retail and educational and medical supplies divisions. In 2009, the company made a loss of £57.4 million on a turnover of £572.1 million. It says that it intends to use the proceeds of the sale to reduce its net debt, which in April this year stood at £309.6 million. Findel is currently exiting non-core and loss-making operations.

Cheshire-based Hut Group was founded in 2004. The online retailer has 250 employees and a 2009 turnover of around £80 million. The company also provides online retail platforms for clients including Tesco and Lovefilm.