9 May 2022
Made.com Group Plc
("MADE" or the "Group")
MADE to acquire Trouva to accelerate strategic priorities
Made.com Group Plc, the leading digital native lifestyle brand in home, today announces the acquisition of Trouva, to advance the Group's growth strategy. Trouva is the leading platform to discover independent boutiques and brands offering customers a curated range of homewares, lifestyle and fashion products. Launched in 2015 Trouva has its HQ in London. The company has relationships with over 700 boutiques across Europe and has delivered to 34 countries worldwide this year. Trouva will continue to operate as a standalone brand led by the current leadership team of Alex Loizou (CEO) and Dimple Patel (COO).
The acquisition of Trouva accelerates the Group's strategic priorities, particularly around Choice and Reach. On Choice, the acquisition is expected to accelerate the expansion of homeware SKU count on MADE's curated marketplace, giving customers even more variety and newness. On Reach, the Group anticipates leveraging Trouva's cross-border functionality to increase the distribution coverage for MADE's marketplace product offer.
Trouva has attractive marketplace technology, which MADE plans to integrate into the Group's existing marketplace tech stack, significantly enhancing functionality around dropship, carrier integration and inventory management. The Group intends to build out the existing Trouva tech hub in Portugal to create a new centre of excellence. Integration of Trouva will be led by MADE Chief Technology Officer Geert Engels, who has extensive experience in successfully integrating technology functions.
The acquisition will enable MADE to efficiently scale its curated marketplace offering, and avoid some anticipated capex spend. Total cashflow on the combined acquisition consideration and capex is now expected to be £13-18m for 2022, compared to previous guidance of £15-20m. The acquisition will be fully funded by cash and is expected to deliver a strong return on investment. Trouva is currently loss making. The enlarged Group will leverage scale and marketing efficiency and expertise to improve the financial performance of Trouva.
Nicola Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of MADE said:
"We are delighted to welcome Trouva to MADE. This acquisition brings with it an experienced and talented team, a sector-leading technology platform and excellently procured choices of homewares product that will resonate with the MADE target customer. Trouva's assortment complements MADE's design-led homeware and home proposition superbly and is a great strategic fit for MADE as we continue to enhance our marketplace offer. This acquisition will allow us to significantly accelerate our growth strategy by expanding our curated product range - giving our customers more choice and newness - and scaling the business in key territories both established and targeted by leveraging Trouva's exceptional cross-border technology."
Alex Loizou, co-founder and CEO of Trouva, said:
"We are excited for the future of Trouva as part of MADE. The combination of the two businesses enables us to leverage synergies across our brands, customers and our technology platform. By becoming part of the MADE group, we will continue on our mission to support independent boutiques and brands by making their curation accessible. We look forward to continuing growing Trouva's marketplace offer while extending the range of curated products available to the MADE customer."
ENDS
Enquiries:
MADE
Adrian Evans, Chief Financial Officer
Phil Clark, Investor Relations
Media
Sarah West, James Baker, Amber Ahluwalia
made@brunswickgroup.com
+44 207 404 5959
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
Certain statements in this announcement 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 9,500 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 globally, with flagship brand experiences in London and Paris.
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