Fast-growing etailer ISawItFirst has hired former Matalan deputy chief executive Greg Pateras, who is understood to be gearing the business up for a stock market flotation.
The appointment of Pateras as executive director is understood to signal a professionalising of the fast fashion specialist, which sources close to the retailer believe is a precursor to an IPO.
ISawItFirst was founded by Jalal Kamani, brother of Boohoo co-founder Mahmud. Jalal was trading director at Boohoo and helped propel the fast fashion group into a £3.4bn listed business.
Kamani aims to replicate such growth with ISawItFirst. The etailer, which targets 16- to 30-year-olds, is currently sponsoring Love Island, which is understood to be attracting hordes of new customers to the etailer.
ISawItFirst sponsored the last series of the show, which helped sales surge 62% in its last financial year to October 2020, and the growth is understood to have continued into its current year. Annual sales are thought to be around £50m.
Online businesses going from strength to strength
If ISawItFirst opts to float it would add to a flurry of online businesses making their stock market debuts. Investor appetite for ecommerce businesses is strong after consumers increasingly shifted online during the pandemic and retailers including Moonpig, The Hut Group and InTheStyle have pressed the button on successful flotations over the past year.
Pateras is experienced at growing online businesses. He was chief financial officer of Shop Direct and an integral part of the leadership team that helped transform the business from a loss-making catalogue retailer to a fast-growing pureplay.
In his last role at Matalan he led a turnaround and digital transformation, which included quadrupling its ecommerce sales and helping the stores business return to growth.
A spokesperson for ISawItFirst confirmed that Pateras joined the business this week.
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