Made.com Share Discussion Threads

[tazerface] 27/10/2022 08:01

Disgusting POS. This rabid dog is going down

[tomboyb] 27/10/2022 07:54

This is a case study -

No equity offer for the company forthcoming -

[ny boy] 27/10/2022 07:51

Isn’t always been a nonsense stock, turn the lights out ffs, beyond embarrassing, how not to waste shareholders monies!

Investors moving into quality retail recovery like ASOS (ASC)etc. buy dyor as usual

[halland75] 27/10/2022 07:51

To think I was going to buy some gorgeous, storage trunks from this company.
Thank goodness I didn't, heard they are no longer taking orders.

Ain't looking good!

[babbler] 27/10/2022 07:40

what do you think is going on? They are letting mates and IIs out at the expense of gambling PIs.

[terminator101] 27/10/2022 07:20

Termination of the formal sales process huh. Not taking customer orders. Preserving value for creditors.

All hope is lost in this pathetic excuse for a company.

But you can rest easy knowing that Brent Hoberman sold a big slug of his shares at nearly 200p. Plus there’s a picture of a really nice table you can look at on their website (at least until they pull the plug and switch the lights out).

[bob1995] 27/10/2022 02:58

Who? You are deluded as per usual. stick to the drinking and dark rooms and keep off the cleaning fluids.

[saint of advfn] 26/10/2022 20:53

Nail to the cross. Amen

[dave4545] 26/10/2022 20:35

Have you stopped using your letmepass handle then Bob?

[bob1995] 26/10/2022 19:36

Suspension tomorrow or one hell of a big squeeze. Has to be suspended, surely.

[tomboyb] 26/10/2022 19:21

Curtains -

Literally -

[tomboyb] 26/10/2022 19:20

hxxps://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/madecom-comes-apart-at-the-seams-as-inflation-drives-sofa-retailer-to-the-brink/ar-AA13pjCH

Made.com comes apart at the seams as inflation drives sofa retailer to the brink
Hannah Boland - 50m ago
Comments




“Sit tight,” a notice plastered across Made.com’s website read on Wednesday morning.

MADE.COM Philippe Chainieux CEO - Made.com
MADE.COM Philippe Chainieux CEO - Made.com
© Provided by The Telegraph
The furniture retailer said it had taken down its website to make “some important updates to improve your shopping experience". “We’ll be back soon,” the notice read.

It’s now looking increasingly unlikely that Made.com can stick to that promise.

On Wednesday, as it teetered on the brink of collapse, the retailer said it would temporarily stop taking orders.

Its talks with potential buyers and investors, which had been going on for weeks, had ultimately ended without a deal and the £70m cash injection it had been seeking appeared less likely than ever to materialise.

Made.com, which was set up in 2011 by investor Ning Li and Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman, said it had no choice but to take "appropriate steps" to preserve value for creditors.

“There's a pretty clear indication in all this,” says Paul Zalkin, a restructuring expert at Quantuma. “It seems highly likely that the business is going to have to go through some sort of formal insolvency process.”

City sources describe the situation as “disastrous221;. The company, which had only a year and a half ago commanded a valuation of £775m, now appears almost worth nothing.

Made.com on Tuesday warned that shares may be suspended after they plunged to 0.5p, valuing the company at just over £2m. In truth, City sources say, “it is just plain f—ked”.

Many have been left scratching their heads over how it all went so wrong.

In the past year alone, Made.com has lost its chief executive and its chief financial officer, and has warned over profits three times.

In its latest set of results, to June 30, it said its cash pile had shrunk by £143m in the space of a year to just £32m, after it started storing more furniture in warehouses to avoid supply turmoil. It also splurged on more warehouse space “in anticipation of strong growth” this year, only to be hit by a downturn in spending among squeezed shoppers.

“One has to question if they've really understood the mechanics of the furniture industry,” says Shore Capital analyst Clive Black. “It doesn't look like there's been any slack in their system”.

Aside from the operational side of things, Black says there also appears to have been a similarly odd approach to the finance strategy. “It just looks like the bank is empty.”

Made.com does not have any pre-arranged credit or overdraft facilities. Its liabilities are made up of “trade”, meaning its suppliers, and leases, where it has taken warehouse sites. At the end of June this year, it owed both of these groups around £72m.

In the face of dwindling demand for furniture as shoppers are racked with a cost of living squeeze, and in light of Made.com’s financial situation, analysts say it is unlikely any loan would now be forthcoming from banks.

“No one would loan them any money,” says Davy’s David Reynolds. “In their short public history, Made.com has been characterised as moving too slow - to flex the business into a downturn, to remedy mistakes, and in this case to move to a trade sale scenario.”

The threat of an imminent collapse is something which is now spreading within Made.com itself. Days earlier, staff had been sending emails to customers offering 15pc off all lighting and “furniture in time for Christmas”. Now, insiders say there is “lots of worry”, with no-one certain whether they will still have a job by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, executives “must be terrified of all the public company obligations,” says another source. “Governance has to be extra tight when administration looms,” they say, amid pressure any slip-up could lead to legal action against directors.

All this is breeding anxiety within the business. The company had already started making more than a third of its workforce redundant as part of cost-cutting efforts, which also included consolidating its supply chain in Europe and Vietnam.

Now, though, those who had thought their jobs were safe are facing the threat that the business could ultimately go under. “It's possible, of course, that it could just cease to trade entirely,” says Zalkin.

For customers, there is a clear desire for some clarity on whether orders they have placed will still be coming. “Is it likely that I’ll get my bed on November 9 or shall I just cancel my order?” one customer asked the retailer on Twitter.

Another said they had “used our wedding presents to order a sofa from you and we can't even get on your website anymore”. Made.com had not replied to their questions by Wednesday afternoon.

While ceasing to trade is one option, there are others which could materialise. For one thing, a rescue funder “could come in and is able to recapitalise the business in order to sort of keep it solvent,” says Zalkin, although he says the recent updates from the company suggest that is unlikely.

A pre-pack administration is a more likely outcome, Zalkin says, something which would allow a buyer to come in and essentially leave the creditors behind for the administrator to deal with, portioning out what remaining cash there is after accounting for costs.

Such a process might attract more interested parties. Davy’s Reynolds says it might be a similar situation to Eve Sleep, the mattress retailer which last week crashed into administration and that same day was bought out by Benson for Beds. “Like Eve Sleep, buyers will emerge who clearly did not want to pay the equity price but are more prepared to acquire distressed assets,” he says.

For now, Made.com only says that its board is “considering its position and a further announcement will be made in due course”.

“There can be no certainty that the terms of any offer or investment received will be suitable,” the company told the market.

Made.com may be keen to reassure customers that it will be “back soon”, but the reality of the situation is that it is already out of the retailer’s hands.

[supercity] 26/10/2022 18:21

Because they are allowing the big funds to sell to the mug private investors before they do so - most likely get suspended tomorrow or Friday once they are done.

[kirk 6] 26/10/2022 18:12

I'm here by the canal waiting for you xxx

[firestorm911] 26/10/2022 17:33

Noncey

They are waiting for you to buy,

[tomboyb] 26/10/2022 16:57

If Hoberman has another company come on the exchange I may short the damn thing for the first time -

Killing probably made by shorting from offset -

[neo26] 26/10/2022 16:27

Why has this not been suspended?

[kirk 6] 26/10/2022 16:22

Yes I've just bought a flowery dress