Made.com is no longer taking new orders. The online furniture retailer has appointed external administrators, who have to find a buyer or prepare for the online shop’s bankruptcy.
Reserves exhausted
Made.com can no longer avoid it: the British furniture retailer has appointed PwC administrators to arrange an accelerated sale of the business – or parts of it – at the eleventh hour. If they fail, the online shop will go into administration, the Evening Standard reports. The website of the interior retailer states that the company is no longer taking new orders.
Made.com’s warning from last week has come true: after talks with potential investors and buyers failed to yield sufficient results, it was only a matter of time before the company ran out of cash reserves. It certainly did not help that the share price plummeted by 99 % after the news broke and is now worth only a penny.
High highs, deep lows
The once promising Made.com has suffered badly from an unlikely combination of bad luck. During the Covid pandemic, the online player had enjoyed a spike in demand, especially as people were eager to invest in their homes. However, the retailer was shipping as much as possible directly from China, and suffered huge supply problems (blocked ports, shortage of containers) from the East.
Delivery delays and back orders piled up, prompting Made.com to change course. Co-founder Brent Hoberman regrets that after his departure, the online shop began to stock up, but in doing so it strayed too far from its DNA and lost its distinctiveness. Co-founder Ning Li also believes that his invention has lost its focus on simplicity, and thus its strength.
In addition, the year 2022 marked the beginning of an inflation and purchasing power crisis, which prompted consumers to save massively on major purchases. With this phenomenon even more pronounced in the British domestic market than in continental Europe, Made.com now finds itself with a lot of unsold stock and a (too) deep financial crater.
