6 January 2022

Made.com Group Plc ("MADE")

Year-end Trading Update

Strong customer demand driving + 38% year-on-year gross sales growth

MADE, the leading digital native lifestyle brand in home, achieved 2021 gross sales growth of + 38% year-on-year to £434m, a two-year growth rate of +79%. Growth was supported by last twelve month active customers increasing +26% to 1.3m, 260bps higher repeat order mix and average order value improving +8% year-on-year. Previous revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance is reconfirmed.

Philippe Chainieux, CEO of MADE commented:

"I am delighted with how well the business is performing, with strong customer growth in all markets and the self-help measures implemented in H2 2021 now mitigating the impact of industry wide supply chain issues. Indeed, by the end of H1, we expect average lead times to be significantly below pre-lockdown levels and, with the acceleration of the homeware product range, the company is well positioned to deliver its strategic initiatives in 2022."

·    Growth has been consistent across both the UK and Europe.  Both UK and Continental Europe achieved +38% year-on-year growth.  Full year constant currency growth was +40%.

·    Second half performance has been strong, with £220m gross sales, a year-on year growth of +25% and two year growth of +69%.

·    UK growth rate remained strong throughout the second half. Continental Europe saw some volatility with a softer start to the December sale period compared to trend, but still delivered robust growth for the second half.

·    Full year growth was adversely impacted by closure of Vietnamese factories due to Covid restrictions and industry wide disrupted global supply chains.  These disruptions led to up to 20% of key high performing furniture ranges to be unavailable during peak trading this Autumn.   All key factories are now open, dispatching product and shipping disruptions have been easing.

·    Marketing efficiency levels have been broadly maintained from the first to second half of the year.

·    Category performance has been consistently strong for both Furniture and Homewares.  Homewares mix increased by 0.5ppt to 27.2 %.  The trend of natural materials and weaves has continued to support growth across categories, with strong growth also seen in modular and "social" seating. Our marketplace expansion into candles and home fragrance has been a particular highlight, demonstrating the ability to rapidly create new category strength.

·    Robust customer metrics with +26% growth in active customers; repeat order mix +260bps to 44% and average order value up 8% year-on-year, partly driven by range expansion into higher price point products being adopted well by customers.

·    Average of 3-4 weeks lead time expected to be achieved in H1 2022

·    Marketplace moving beyond beta test on back of very encouraging performance during 2021, marked by release of the first phase of MADE's marketplace technology infrastructure.

·    Unaudited net cash at 31 December 2021 was £107m.

MADE on track to achieve 3-4 weeks average lead time during H1 2022

MADE has continued to deliver significant progress on its key strategic priorities as set out at the time of the IPO and expects to achieve the target 3-4 weeks average lead time during H1 2022. The group has built stock positions to deliver significantly better lead times to consumers for 2022 and beyond. The progress is based on foundational work already undertaken over the last 12-18 months, focusing on warehousing and logistics. Additionally, supply of goods from Vietnam has now returned to close to normal levels, so all our key suppliers around the world are now operational.

Marketplace evolving beyond beta test

On the back of the strong performance from the marketplace beta test, MADE confirm its moving to the next stage of its marketplace development.  Over the last 12 months, MADE has delivered great progress on its homeware proposition and now has more than 100 designer makers, artisans and small brands onboarded to the curated marketplace. In addition, MADE has successfully completed the first phase of its marketplace technology infrastructure implementation.  The new infrastructure includes dropship capability and automated onboarding processes.

MADE will publish preliminary results for full year 2021 on 8 March 2022.

The Group will host a conference call for analysts and investors to discuss this announcement at 8.30am today.  Dial-in details are as follows:

UK +44 (0) 2071 928000

Passcode: 9880776

MADE presents key gross sales performance metrics relating to full year financial year 2021 and the second half of 2021 below:

ALTERNATIVE PERFORMANCE MEASURES (APMs)

We monitor several key metrics to track the financial and operating performance. These measures are derived from the group's internal financial and analytics systems. The Directors believe that these measures provide readers with useful information regarding the group's financial and operating performance and facilitate an understanding of the underlying performance of the group. As some of these measures are not determined in accordance with IFRS, and are thus susceptible to varying calculations, they may not be comparable with other similarly titled measures of performance of other companies.

To support understanding of APMs presented by the group, definitions are presented below.

Enquiries:

MADE

Adrian Evans, Phil Clark

investor.relations@made.com 

Brunswick Group

Sarah West, James Baker, Craig Breheny  

made@brunswickgroup.com 

+44 207 404 5959

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

Certain statements in this trading update are forward-looking. Although the group believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. Because these statements contain risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About MADE

MADE is the leading digitally native lifestyle brand in home, disrupting the industry with high-quality, exclusive designs underpinned by a responsible, small-batch production model, enabling customers to realise the vision of their homes.

In addition to its in-house design team and collaborations with leading designers, MADE champions independent talent, offering them a platform and access to a scalable supply chain that makes their ideas reality. These partners bring their unique perspective in the creation of bold statement collections and work with MADE to produce iconic designs.

Operating at the intersection of design and technology, proprietary algorithms take consumers on a journey: from outreach that makes designs discoverable to a frictionless digital shopping experience. Combined with an innovative 'just-in-time' order model, MADE provides a fresh and ever-changing range, with nine new collections launched every week and more than 8,000 active SKUs in the catalogue as at 31 December 2021.

Founded in 2010, MADE sells its products across the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands via its e-commerce platform. The brand also has seven showrooms across Europe, with flagship brand experiences in London and Paris.