Founders: Brent Hoberman and Chloe Macintosh
Next has launched a dramatic bid for Made.com, which collapsed last week.
The High Street fashion giant is the frontrunner to snap up the online furniture retailer, with a buyer to be announced as early as Monday.
Next, run by Lord Wolfson, is understood to have made a bid worth around £2m to take control of Made’s website, customer database, branding and other intellectual property.
It is one of a number of interested parties – Frasers Group are also believed to be in the running – with bids worth £2m to £3m.
The deal would save a much-loved British brand set up in 2010 by Brent Hoberman, Chloe Macintosh, Ning Li and Julien Callede, and see it run by Wolfson, one of the UK’s most successful retailers.
But the collapsed firm’s 500 staff are set to lose their jobs and will not be taken on by whoever wins the bidding war, nor will its huge pile of unsold stock. And customers with outstanding orders are likely only to be refunded if they paid by credit card.
Made confirmed it was going bust last week after it teetered 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 annual sales in 2020 of £315m, and was valued at £775m when it joined the London Stock Exchange just over a year ago. But a series of management missteps left the business with millions of pounds worth of inventory it could not sell.
It was also hammered by supply chain disruption on imports from the Far East and, more recently, the cost of living crisis.
Shareholders were wiped out, having seen the stock fall 99 per cent before bosses threw in the towel.
A source close to Next confirmed the bid, but said it was one of a number of interested buyers.
Next and Made declined to comment.
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