Made.com acquired by Next
Made.com has been bought out of administration by Next.
The furniture brand has been struggling in recent months due to a fall in discretionary consumer spending.
With over 570 permanent employees, Made has warehouses in the UK and Belgium, as well as offices and showrooms in London, Europe and Vietnam.
On appointment, joint administrators from PwC completed the sale of the Made brand, website and intellectual property to Next Retail. However, the sale does not include staff which means there will be 320 redundancies. Some 79 employees who had resigned and were working their notice have been released with immediate effect.
In a statement, the joint administrators said close to 4,500 customer orders in the UK and Europe that are already with carriers will be delivered. However, a large proportion of orders are still at origin in the Far East so cannot be completed.
Zelf Hussain, joint administrator and partner at PwC, said: “The company is a casualty of the headwinds being faced by all retailers, but more heavily by those selling big-ticket products. A combination of factors including significant decline in consumer spending from cost-of-living pressures, rising import costs and continuing supply chain pressures has meant the business could no longer continue.
“It is with real regret that redundancies will need to be made. We would like to thank all the employees for their hard work. We will continue to support those affected at this difficult time, including assisting the HR team’s efforts to secure staff new roles. A small number of employees have been retained to support the orderly closure of the business.”
Nicola Thompson, chief executive of Made.com, apologised to everyone affected by the move and said the business had “fought tooth and nail” to save the company.
She added: “Made is a much-loved brand that was highly successful and well adapted, over many years, to a world of low inflation, stable consumer demand, reliable and cost-efficient global supply chains and limited geo-political volatility.
“That world vanished, the business could not survive in its current iteration, and we could not pivot fast enough. The brand will now continue under new owners. I hope that a reconfigured Made will prove to be sustainable and will continue to be loved by customers.”
