These are the times when the global tech giants are, unfortunately, on a massive layoff spree. Large-scale tech companies, including Meta, Amazon, and Twitter, have already laid off tens of thousands of employees, while others are freezing or slowing down their hiring process because of the possible global recession. In addition, there is sluggish consumer spending and the soaring impacts of inflation all over the global economic markets.
Currently, every household in the UK is set to pay higher taxes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are trying to fix the £50 billion’ black hole’ in the country’s finances.
Made.com layoffs
Amid the tech turmoil, another tech company which has found itself in troubled waters is London-based Made.com. The online furniture shop specialising in home furnishing and renovation also recently announced plans to lay off over 700 of its staff, which is almost one-third of its workforce.
The Swedish megafirm Ikea rival was quite ambitious from the start and wanted to become a £1 billion company. Also, Made.com floated on the stock market early last year and reached a valuation of nearly £775 million.
Despite these ambitions, the company’s good times have flipped in a few months of floating on the London Stock Exchange, and its current value is £2 million. Recently, the company stated that it needs £70 million in funding over the next 18 months to function properly.
The fall of Made.com
When the talks of its IPO began, the Made.com business model shifted from focusing on minimal stock and wastage to being almost similar to other retailers. Made’s low-waste and on-time model was the key to its early success. At a time when other retailers sold stock, Made.com sold designs that produced only when enough customers had ordered for them. Also, the lead times were weeks or even months, which targeted younger buyers who liked to make thoughtful spending.
Things took a turn during the pandemic, when people were at home and wanted to change their old furniture. As per the company’s annual report, its revenue surged from £212 million in 2019 to £247 million in 2020 and £372 million in 2021. However, Made.com changed its business model as orders surged. As per its marketing material, it worked with over 200 factories and none of its suppliers prioritised its orders. During the pandemic, there were supply chain crises and it hit customers’ orders as there were increased wait times and complaints related to quality on social media.
At this point in time, the company made a mistake by increasing its warehouse space and piling up stock. While it meant to ship orders to customers on time, it increased its costs dramatically. Apparently, the team failed to realise that furniture is unlike food or fashion for people to buy it every week or month, leading to a downfall in the business.
Now, let’s take a look at the details of the founders of Made.com and their other achievements.
Online retailer to sex health entrepreneur
Brent Hoberman established Made.com, the founder of Lastminute.com, along with French sex-tech entrepreneur Chloe Macintosh, Ning Li and Julien Callede in 2010 in London.
Serial entrepreneur and mother-of-two Chloe Macintosh was the driving force behind Made.com until she stepped down from the position of creative director in 2015. Last year, she made the sex health industry turn towards her by creating a ‘First Time Sex Starter Kit’ alongside her 16-year-old son to help teens lose their virginity.
She came up with the idea for a sex education app during the lockdown, and launched Kama, which features guidance on a number of different topics for all ages. She began work on the app while both her sons were at home.
Dot.com revolution pioneer!
After Chloe, Brent Hoberman is the second major player in the story of Made.com. He became the pioneer of pioners of .com revolution by setting up the online travel giant LastMinute.com alongside business partner Martha Lane-Fox. The company enables travellers to find cheap holidays abroad.
Lastminute.com was sold to Sabre Holdings in July 2005 for £577 million after recording a loss of £77million in 2004.
Being a serial entrepreneur, Brent is the co-founder of several other tech businesses. He has been an advisor to four UK Prime Ministers and was the chairman of the Oxford Foundry advisory board from its inception, chaired Karakuri, and The Royal Foundation Taskforce on the Prevention of Cyberbullying for The Duke of Cambridge. Also, he has served former board roles at TalkTalk, TimeOut, The Guardian Media Group, Shazam Entertainment, Eton College, Imperial College Innovation Fund and The Economist.
Chinese-born Myfab founder
The third Made.com founder is the Chinese-born Ning Li, who remains the company’s director. He moved to France for study purposes. The young businessman became an entrepreneur by founding the e-commerce company, Myfab in 2007 ahead of forming Made.com in 2010.
In 2019, Ning Li went on to form Typology, a new Paris-based startup that designs and sells directly to consumer quality skincare and cosmetics products.
Online furniture store Cocoli’s founder
The fourth founder of Made.com, Julien Callede served as its former chief operating officer. The entrepreneur has invested in a dozen companies and co-founded another online furniture store, Cocoli based in Berlin last year. It is a smaller-scale venture to Made.com.
The Next acquisition
Leicestershire-based retail giant Next is buying Made’s brand name, website and intellectual property for £3.4m, but has said it will not buy its remaining stock.
Made.com failures have reportedly, gone in history as one of the fastest corporate collapses in the UK and the British company’s failure was largely driven by soaring freight costs and supply chain difficulties as well as lower consumer desire for pricey furniture due to the inflationary situation.
