Next, ready to pounce on Made as the online company hits the bricks: the High Street fashion giant is the favorite to take over the online furniture retailer.
Founders: Brent Hoberman and Chloe Macintosh
Next launched a dramatic bid for Made.com, which collapsed last week.
The High Street fashion giant is the favorite to take over the online furniture retailer, with a buyer to be announced on Monday.
Next, led by Lord Wolfson, is understood to have made a bid worth around £2m to take control of Made’s website, customer database, brand and other intellectual property.
It is one of several interested parties (Frasers Group is also believed to be in the running) with bids worth £2m-3m.
The deal would save a much-loved British brand created in 2010 by Brent Hoberman, Chloe Macintosh, Ning Li and Julien Callede, and be run by Wolfson, one of the UK’s most successful retailers.
But the collapsed company’s 500 employees will lose their jobs and won’t be taken over by whoever wins the bidding war, nor will their huge pile of unsold shares. And customers with pending orders will likely only get a refund if they paid by credit card.
Made confirmed it was going bankrupt last week after teetering on the brink for months.
The company aimed to make high-end furniture accessible to everyone.
It quickly grew to become a major player with 2020 annual sales of £315m and was valued at £775m when it joined the London Stock Exchange just over a year ago. But a series of management mistakes left the company with millions of pounds of inventory it couldn’t sell.
It was also affected by supply chain disruption in imports from the Far East and, more recently, the cost of living crisis.
Shareholders were wiped out, having seen shares drop 99 percent before the bosses threw in the towel.
A source close to Next confirmed the offer but said he was one of several interested buyers.
Next and Made declined to comment.
