Doomed Made.com is sold to Next for £3.4m
FURNITURE giant Made’s collapse has enabled Next to snap up the brand, website and its intellectual property for £3.4million – less than 18 months after the group was valued at £775million.
But Next’s purchase will not save the jobs of 400 of Made’s 573 staff.
And 12,000 customers will not receive their orders, according to the company’s administrator PwC. Sources warn that many may not get their money back either.
Around 4,500 orders in the UK and Europe are with carriers and will be delivered, but the rest will not.
PwC said that due to the furniture group’s collapse, orders that were in production will not be completed or shipped from its factories in the Far East.
If all 12,000 customers file claims for the money they are owed, they will be seen by PwC as unsecured creditors.
One expert put the chances of them getting any money back at “close to zero”, as unsecured creditors are the last to be repaid when a company fails.
Made did well after Covid hit, but issues arising in its aftermath put the firm under strain it could not withstand.
Joint administrator and PwC partner
Zelf Hussain said: “The company is a casualty of the headwinds being faced by all retailers, but more heavily by those selling big-ticket products.
“A combination of factors including significant decline in consumer spending from cost-of-living pressures, rising import costs and continuing supply chain pressures has meant the business could no longer continue.” However,
Made customers who paid for their orders with credit cards can file Section 75 claims to recoup money from their card provider.
Debit card users can file “chargeback” claims, which will allow their bank to try to reclaim their money from the accounts of Made. However, there is no guarantee that they will be able to do so successfully.