Made.com customers will not see return of £12m in deposits for pricey furniture
Tens of thousands of Made.com customers will be left out of pocket by a total of nearly £12m, according to the homeware firm’s administrators.
The London-listed sofa seller collapsed this autumn after a consumer crunch caused sales to slow, resulting in hundreds of job losses.
Now, a report by PwC administrators has revealed that more than 30,000 shoppers will not see funds repaid.
Some £13.7m was paid in deposits on big ticket items by shoppers, documents filed with Companies House and first reported on by The Guardian have shown.
Less than £1.9m of this has been returned into customers’ pockets via card charge-backs through credit card providers.
Administrators admitted there will not be enough cash to repay a £11.9m total sum owed to shoppers.
While Made.com’s £19m stock inventory is set to be sold via an auction house, it is anticipated to garner less than £2m.
Just 18 months after making its £775m debut on the London Stock Exchange, the e-commerce retailer collapsed after being hammered by a pull-back in spending on big-ticket items amid soaring household bills.
High street stalwart Next snapped up the brand, domain names and intellectual property of Made.com for £3.4m in a prepack administration earlier this year.
Former CEO Nicola Thompson, who had hoped to reverse the firm’s fortunes when she stepped into the job this year, said a stable demand for goods and reliable supply chains had “vanished”.
Made.com “could not pivot fast enough” to changes in the macro-economic environment, she said.
Thompson apologised to those impacted by the company going into administration and said Made had “fought tooth and nail” to avoid falling into administration.
Made posted a loss before tax of £35.3m for the six months to 30 June, versus £10.1m a year prior.
The collapse resulted in 399 job losses out of a 573 headcount.