Made.com is an online furniture and homewares retailer traditionally targeting style-conscious young professionals with designer furniture at lower prices by grouping customer orders together and sourcing directly from designers and manufacturers overseas.
However, the embattled retailer was bought out of administration by fashion giant Next in November 2022. The news broke on the same day that Made had confirmed its collapse.
Next acquired Made’s brand, domain names and intellectual property for £3.4m.
Prior to its acquisition by Next, Made had operated a limited number of showrooms as experience touchpoints and an extension of its website.
Having launched the new Made.com website in mid-2023, later that year Next opened its first Made.com in-store concession in the Meadowhall shopping Centre in Sheffield, with the number having grown to around 10 by early 2024.
Made head of brand Hollie Parkinson explained to Linkedin News UK that there were plans to expand Made’s presence both online and in store. She added that Made intended to keep its own brand identity aside from Next’s and was looking into expansion opportunities, including brand partnerships, an external store, and a return to Europe in 2024.
Reportedly, Next plans to support Made “operationally and commercially”, enabling it to leverage the efficiencies of the wider Next business.
Expanding Made into new categories across furniture and homeware may also be in the pipeline.
Administration and acquisition
Made had brought in Peter David Dickens, Zelf Hussain and Rachael Maria Wilkinson of PwC in late 2022 as administrators for Made’s trading subsidiary MDL, after failing to find a buyer or secure emergency funding.
Made’s shares on the London Stock Exchange had been cancelled the previous week as the retailer moved a step closer to administration.
The retailer’s fortunes had boomed during the pandemic as shoppers bought more furniture online and it floated on the London Stock Market in June 2021, raising £775m to fund ongoing development plans. These included increasing scale in existing markets, developing a new curated homewares platform and further international expansion.
However, its performance was hit by consumers pulling back spend on big-ticket items as the cost of living began to climb, while customers were also left waiting months for deliveries hindered by global supply chain issues, with the business – which had been founded on a vision of simplicity, including holding minimal stock – also reportedly hindered by holding excess inventory.
The adverse conditions made it difficult to acquire new customers and the retailer experienced an “increased need” to sell more of its products at discount in a bid to clear stock.
A strategic review was launched before the business was formally put up for sale in September 2022 as it sought fresh capital. But with several potential suitors pulling out of rescue bids in October, the business was placed in administration at the beginning of November before Next stepped in.
Prior to its administration
Made’s sales had grown rapidly, reaching £372m in 2021, but the business remained loss-making, with losses widening before it fell into administration, as management continued to prioritise international and technology investment over bottom line growth.
Before it was bought by Next, Made had been increasingly focused on global expansion, extending into France, the Benelux and DACH regions and Spain, with international revenue accounting for 48% of the retailer’s total sales in 2021. Supporting its expansion, it had rolled out showrooms in key European cities including Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. It also relaunched in Ireland in 2022.
Made.com had acquired homewares platform Trouva in May 2022, which it said would “accelerate the expansion of homeware SKU count on Made’s curated marketplace, giving customers even more variety and newness”. However, in January 2023, not long after Next’s acquisition of Made, Trouva was acquired by Re:store.
Sustainability
Made’s ability to control all aspects of its supply chain has traditionally enabled it to embed sustainability throughout its operations from design, sourcing and production, to sales and aftersales.
