, it's still a brutal blow. The administrators announced that 320 employees were made redundant with immediate effect, along with a further 79 working their notice; a small number have been retained to support the closure. As for UK customers, the 4,500 orders already with couriers will be shipped, but those with orders still in production – an estimated 12,000 – will not receive their goods and will have to join the long list of people to whom the company owes money. Given the dire market conditions, it is still an astonishingly vertiginous fall from grace. Made went public only last June, listed on the London Stock Exchange with a value of £775m. From its launch 12 years ago, its blend of smart marketing and accessible mid-century-inspired designs was a hit with millennials. But ever since the IPO, Made's share price plummeted steadily from 200p to less than 1p. So what went wrong? The answer lies in its transformation from a start-up to industry behemoth. Made was the brainchild of Ning Li, a then-28-year-old Chinese expat living in Paris, who discovered that a £3,000 designer sofa he was going to buy was being produced at a Chinese factory owned by a friend for about £250 – and realised he could sell direct to consumers. He approached Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, and Hoberman brought in architect Chloè Macintosh. Together, they launched a digital-only interiors marketplace with low overheads (no unsold inventory in warehouses, no high street stores).){kind=link}
Made.com was modern, sleek and affordable, and the influencer community loved it. So why did it fall from grace so spectacularly?
In tough times, few shop for sofas. But when news broke last month that the furniture retailer Made.com was on the brink of collapse, the reaction among industry experts, customers and even its employees was shock.
Even now, with high-street stalwart Next stepping in to buy the brand, domain names and intellectual property for a reported £3.4m (Next declined to take on staff or inventory), it’s still a brutal blow. The administrators announced that 320 employees were made redundant with immediate effect, along with a further 79 working their notice; a small number have been retained to support the closure. As for UK customers, the 4,500 orders already with couriers will be shipped, but those with orders still in production – an estimated 12,000 – will not receive their goods and will have to join the long list of people to whom the company owes money.
Given the dire market conditions, it is still an astonishingly vertiginous fall from grace. Made went public only last June, listed on the London Stock Exchange with a value of £775m. From its launch 12 years ago, its blend of smart marketing and accessible mid-century-inspired designs was a hit with millennials. But ever since the IPO, Made’s share price plummeted steadily from 200p to less than 1p. So what went wrong?
The answer lies in its transformation from a start-up to industry behemoth. Made was the brainchild of Ning Li, a then-28-year-old Chinese expat living in Paris, who discovered that a £3,000 designer sofa he was going to buy was being produced at a Chinese factory owned by a friend for about £250 – and realised he could sell direct to consumers. He approached Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, and Hoberman brought in architect Chloè Macintosh. Together, they launched a digital-only interiors marketplace with low overheads (no unsold inventory in warehouses, no high street stores).