Made.com to open new showroom amid £100m IPO rumours

Furniture retailer Made.com is set to open its fourth showroom amid rumours the company is priming itself for a £100m IPO.

Co-founders Ning Li, Chloè Macintosh and Julien Callède, named Young Guns in 2010 while still in the company’s first year of business, will open a Soho showroom on Charing Cross Road tomorrow.

The latest showroom will join outlets in Notting Hill, Old Street, and West Yorkshire.

Talk of an IPO will inevitably persist, not least because the business is backed and chaired by Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, who floated his late deals site on AIM in 2000.

In 2009 Hoberman encouraged the impressive Li to launch his online business before following up with investment through his venture capital firm PROfounders Capital.

It subsequently raised £6m with investment from US firm Level Equity, as well as additional funds from PROfounders Capital.

If the public market listing for the 160-strong company goes ahead reports suggest it could raise £50m of new cash to further expand its global footprint, with a fifth of its revenue from export sales.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Made.com’s turnover for 2014 jumped 63% with Companies House records showing the business recorded revenues of £26.1m in the year to December 31, 2013.

Li told The Times last Autumn that the company plans to keep turnover growth at 50% for the next year or two.

By working with designers and manufacturing overseas according to customer demand, Made.com is able to release an impressive two collections of furniture each week against an industry average of two per year.

While the company has chosen not to substantiate the rumours, the Telegraph reports it has been working with advisers Citi, Peel Hunt and Rothschild.

Photo: Giles Christopher