MADE.COM is a brand based in London, England that designs and retails homewares and furniture online, and across a network of experiential showrooms in Europe. The company was co-founded by Ning Li (chief executive officer) and Brent Hoberman (Chairman and founder of Lastminute.com), together with Julien Callède (Chief Operations Officer) and Chloe Macintosh.
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History
MADE.COM was launched in March 2010 with £2.5 million funding and the organisation later received £6m in series B financing. In January 2013 MADE.COM launched in France led by digital entrepreneur David Vanek. In September 2013 MADE.COM launched in Italy. In the same month Philippe Chainieux, formally CEO of Meetic/ Match.com Europe was appointed as managing director and MADE.COM aired its first TV ad in the UK, Great Design Direct From The Makers. In October 2013, MADE.COM was selected as one of the initial 25 new UK businesses, for the government's Future Fifty programme. The Future Fifty are the high-growth technology companies the government wants to help expand and float. In December 2013 MADE.COM CEO and Co-Founder, Ning Li, accompanied the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and other UK business delegates on a major trade trip to China. In September 2014 MADE.COM launched in the Netherlands and just 6 months later, in March 2015, MADE launched the site in Germany led by Gloria Maria Reuss. In March 2015 Chloe Macintosh stepped down as Creative Director. In July 2015 MADE.COM raised $60m (£38m) in growth capital from Partech and Eight Roads Ventures to accelerate its expansion into Europe.
In November 2016, founder Ning Li announced that he would be stepping down as chief executive of the company, but would remain involved in an advisory role. The announcement came as the company was nearing £100m in sales.
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Operations
MADE.COM does not own any of its factories, instead it commissions factories to meet its orders. The company's head office is based in London and also operates an office in Shanghai, China. It has 250 team members spanning across both offices. In 2012 sales grew by 200% compared to 2011 and in 2012 grew by between one and two people per week. MADE.COM opened its Ninth Floor Showroom, in Notting Hill during London Design Festival 2012. On 16 December 2013 MADE opened the doors to its showroom at Redbrick Mill in Batley. In January 2015 MADE opened its flagship showroom in Soho, London (100 Charing Cross Road). These physical showroom presents a selection of the site's products and customers are able to take away fabric samples and create wishlists.
Business Model
MADE.COM streamlines the furniture design and manufacture process allowing it take products from design to sale in as little as four months. MADE.COM releases two new collections a week. The company minimises overheads by selling online, grouping orders of the same item, not owning its factories and building close working relationships with factories and designers. Its website showcases furniture designs and encourages people to vote for their favourite. Crowd-sourced designs go into production and people who voted can go on to purchase them should they reach production. Orders are then placed directly with the manufacturer for mass production. Once produced, these orders are shipped and then dispatched to customers.
Designers
MADE.COM collaborates with a number of designers including Steuart Padwick, James Harrison, Kirsty Whyte, Nina Campbell, Ian Archer, Philip Colbert, Ilaria Marelli, Genevieve Bennett, John Stefanidis and Alison Cork. In 2012 the New Designers MADE.COM Award was given to Hugh Leader-Williams for his Spun Collection. The prize was to have his design put into production and sold on the MADE.COM website. In 2013 MADE.COM in partnered with the Design Museum to give designers the chance to submit their designs for a two-seater sofa as part of its Future Is Here exhibition. The public could vote for their favourite via the MADE.COM website. The winning entry was 'The Lovebird', by Je-Uk Kim, which was put into production in four months. In September 2013 MADE.COM announced that graduate Designer Josie Morris was the winner of its first Emerging Talent Awards with her Range collection of tables and stools. Josie, who studied at Northumbria University, saw her collection go into production and sold on the MADE.COM website. In 2014 Ying Chang and her fascinatingly functional Grid System Desk won MADE's Emerging Talent Award.
Recognition
- The Independent Top 50 Best Furniture Shops, 2011
- The Daily Telegraph's 'E-Commerce, Finance and Payment' winner - Tech Start-Up 100, 2011
- New Media Age Effectiveness Awards finalist, 2011
- Highly Commended Website of the Year, 2010 by the Good Web Guide
- Winner of the Young Start-up of the Year at the Startups Awards, 2012
- Winner of 'Home & Home Improvement' sector from the Online Retail Awards for two years running in 2012.
- Part of the UKIT's GREAT Entrepreneurs campaign in 2012.
- Commended winner in the 'Innovation' category at the Internet Retailing Awards 2013, competing against Burberry, M&S and Topshop.
- Shortlisted for Online Retail Awards 2013.
- Red's Hot Women Awards 2013 - Chloe Macintosh Start-up Category.
- MADE.COM was named second fastest-growing tech company in the UK 2014
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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