Next buys Made as furniture retailer goes bust costing 320 jobs

Next has bought the Made brand after the online furniture retailer filed for administration, costing at least 320 workers their jobs.

The staff were made redundant after made.com tumbled into administration earlier on Wednesday, advisory firm PwC have now confirmed.

PwC said the deal had resulted in 320 redundancies, while a further 79 staff who had resigned and were working through their notice had also been forced to leave the business immediately.

Made, which employed around 600 people, said it would sell its brand, websites and intellectual property to Next.

Less than two years ago, Made launched on the London Stock Exchange with a £775 million price tag and promises of accelerated growth.

But on Tuesday, Made’s operating subsidiary, MDL, was forced to appoint administrators from PwC, who immediately tied up the deal with Next.

They did not initially say whether any jobs would be saved as part of the deal, before redundancies were confirmed on Wednesday morning.

Last month, Made abandoned hopes of finding a buyer to save it by injecting the cash it needed to stay afloat.

The troubled company filed a notice to appoint administrators last week after being hit by soaring costs and slowing customer demand.

Made.com had also already halted new orders and said it is currently not offering refunds or accepting returns from customers, although it is still intending to fulfil previous orders.

The retailer has offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, China and Vietnam.

Following the redundancies announcement, Nicola Thompson, chief executive office of Made, said: “I would like to sincerely apologise to everyone – customers, employees, supplier partners, shareholders and all other stakeholders – impacted as a result of the business going into administration.

“Over the past months we have fought tooth and nail to rapidly re-size the cost base, re-engineer the sourcing and stock model, and try every possible avenue to raise fresh financing and avoid this outcome.

“The brand will now continue under new owners. I hope that a reconfigured Made will prove to be sustainable and will continue to be loved by customers.”

Zelf Hussain, joint administrator and partner at PwC, said: “It is with real regret that redundancies will need to be made.

“We would like to thank all the employees for their hard work.

“We will continue to support those affected at this difficult time, including assisting the HR team’s efforts to secure staff new roles.

“A small number of employees have been retained to support the orderly closure of the business.”

Made chairwoman Susanne Given said: “Having run an extensive process to secure the future of the business, we are deeply disappointed that we have reached this point and how it will affect all our stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders.

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“We appreciate and deeply regret the frustration that MDL going into administration will have caused for everyone.”

It is understood the company had garnered interest from a number of parties to purchase parts of the business since tipping into insolvency before tying up the deal with Next.

The firm’s shares had already been suspended.

Ms Given said: “I want to sincerely thank all our employees, customers, suppliers and partners for your support throughout the past 12 years, and especially during this difficult time where we have tried so hard to find a workable solution for the company and all its stakeholders.”