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Next ready to dive into Made as online business hits the buffers: High Street fashion giant leads the way to conquer the online furniture retailer
Founders: Brent Hoberman and Chloe Macintosh
Next has made a dramatic bid for Made.com, which collapsed last week.
Fashion giant High Street is leading the way to conquer the online furniture retailer, with a buyer to be announced as early as Monday.
Subsequently, run by Lord Wolfson, is said to have made a bid of around £2 million to take control of Made’s website, customer database, branding and other intellectual property.
It is one of a number of interested parties – Frasers Group is also believed to be in the running – with bids worth £2m to £3m.
The deal would save a much-loved British brand, founded in 2010 by Brent Hoberman, Chloe Macintosh, Ning Li and Julien Callede, and run it by Wolfson, one of the UK’s most successful retailers.
But the 500 employees of the bankrupt company will lose their jobs and will not be taken over by whoever wins the bidding war, nor will the huge pile of unsold inventory. And customers with open orders will likely only be refunded if they paid by credit card.
Made last week confirmed it would go bankrupt after teetering on the brink for months.
The company wanted to make high-quality furniture accessible to everyone.
It quickly grew into a major player with 2020 annual sales of £315 million, and was valued at £775 million when it joined the London Stock Exchange just over a year ago. But a series of management missteps left the company with millions of pounds of inventory it couldn’t sell.
It has also been plagued by supply chain disruption to imports from the Far East and, more recently, by the cost of living crisis.
Shareholders were wiped out after seeing the stock plummet 99 percent before bosses threw in the towel.
A source close to Next confirmed the offer, but said it was one of a number of interested buyers.
Next and Made declined to comment.