Member Article

Sales soar for Endless-backed Moda Furnishings

Leading omni-channel outdoor living and garden furniture retailer Moda Furnishings is on track to deliver a year of exceptional revenue growth underpinned by record levels of investment in its team and infrastructure.

Revenues jumped from £15m in 2019 to over £24m in the year to October 2020, and are on track to deliver a similarly strong rate of growth in the current financial year. The Manchester company, backed since 2019 by mid-market private equity house Endless, has nearly doubled in size again in only the last six months as sales have accelerated dramatically amid strong consumer demand for its high quality outdoor furniture.

This has been underpinned by investment in the supply chain, ensuring short lead times for product despite such high demand. Investment in a refreshed website and e-commerce capabilities, the expansion of Moda’s in-house delivery fleet, and the launch of new products including a new all-weather fabric range, have also helped the company grow.

Moda’s success has been recognised with its first-ever ranking in the Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100, where it has been ranked 64th in the index of the UK’s 100 private companies with the fastest-growing profits over their latest three years. While e-commerce has been the driver of recent growth during the last 12 months, Moda remains committed to its showrooms, which have reopened this week as COVID-19 restrictions on retailers have been lifted.

Alongside the reopening of its socially-distanced sites in Manchester and Caterham, Surrey, Moda has opened a new showroom in Milton Keynes and is opening in Cheltenham later this month. The business is also planning to open a fifth showroom in North London in the coming weeks, giving Moda a strong national footprint to showcase its market leading products.

CEO Jonny Brierley said: “As a fast-growing business it’s incredibly important to continue to invest in our team and infrastructure. Amid a difficult time for many people working in retail we are proud to have been able to recruit for 50 roles and also invest in new showrooms too, which we believe supports our e-commerce activities by allowing our customers to come and look at our products which are modular so can be configured to meet any garden shape.

“The last 12 months have been incredibly busy and productive. Alongside the investment in new showrooms we have refreshed our website, upgraded our IT systems to improve the customer journey and spent close to £500,000 on adding 17 new vehicles to our delivery fleet.”

Moda has also bolstered its senior team in recent months with the recruitment of a new Head of E-commerce, a new Customer Services Manager and a Head of Sales. In line with its growth it has also expanded its warehouse and distribution centre near the Etihad Campus in East Manchester.

Tom Jack, Partner at Endless commented “We’re really proud to see the Moda team achieve so much success since we invested in the business. Moda has superb products which have really captured the consumer mood as lifestyle priorities have changed in recent years. We’re delighted to invest in the team to drive growth in this fantastic business and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead as Moda continues to go from strength to strength.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sarah Jones .