LoveCrafts stitches plan for London listing


Online hobby retailer LoveCrafts.com has begun sounding out bankers over a London listing after sales of knitting and sewing supplies boomed during lockdown.

The platform is exploring a stock market float, or a private fundraise from institutional investors, to help bankroll an international takeover spree.

It is the latest in a long line of technology-backed firms to eye a listing this year,with furniture seller Made.com and takeaway app Deliveroo also going public in the UK. LoveCrafts offers users the chance to share design techniques and pictures as well as buying yarn, patterns, needles and craft books from its online store.

Orders from new customers rose 166pc between March and November last year as stay-at-home workers got hooked on crafting.

The company is mulling a float after it secured $22m (£16m) from investors and lenders in January to buy American rival WEBS, the owner of the largest online knitting store, yarn.com.

The takeover made LoveCrafts a leading player in America and accelerated its attempts to take a larger slice of the $100bn arts and crafts market. Edward Griffith, founder and chief executive, said LoveCrafts wanted to build on its American swoop with more deals.

He said: “We have got to a level of growth that has been accelerated by the pandemic by two to three years.

“We are on a different level now and we expect that to continue. The consensus is that of people who have tried these channels during this difficult period, most will stick with them.”

LoveCrafts is poised to record revenues of more than £60m in the current financial year, with the pandemic-induced rise in demand helping it become profitable in recent months.

The company is chaired by the media veteran Sir Peter Bazalgette.

Related Businesses
    - - Customer
    Copyright © 2024 by CreditRiskMonitor.com (Ticker: CRMZ®). All rights reserved.  You are not permitted to use this report or the information contained herein for any purpose not expressly permitted by CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc. Except as expressly permitted by CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc., you are not permitted, in whole or in part, to copy, alter, correct, adapt, translate, enhance, lease, sell, sublicense, assign, distribute, publish, otherwise make available to any third party, or prepare derivative works or improvements of this report or any of the information contained therein. You are not permitted to reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile, decode, or adapt the software, algorithms or other processes used to prepare this report, or otherwise attempt to derive or gain access to the source code of same. You agree not to remove, alter, obscure, combine or otherwise change any disclaimers, trademarks, copyrights, other intellectual property rights, proprietary rights, or other symbols, notices, marks, or serial numbers on or relating to any copy of the report or on marketing or other materials that CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc. may provide to you. You will not use this report in any manner or for any purpose that infringes, misappropriates, or otherwise violates any right of any party, or that violates any applicable law.  
    The FRISK® scores, agency ratings, credit limit recommendations and other scores, analysis and commentary are opinions of CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc. and/or its suppliers, not statements of fact, and should be one of several factors in making credit decisions.  Any reliance you place on the information in this report is strictly at your own risk. Except as expressly provided by CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc., no warranties or representations of any type, including without limitation of results to be obtained, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, are made concerning any part of CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc.’s service, including without limitation the FRISK® scores.  The information published above has been obtained from sources CreditRiskMonitor considers to be reliable.  CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc. and its third-party suppliers do not guarantee or validate the accuracy and completeness of the information provided in this report, the underlying information input to create the FRISK® scores, and specifically do not assume responsibility for not reporting any information omitted or withheld.  By using this website, you accept the Terms of Use Agreement. 
    Contact Us: 845.230.3000
    Fundamental financial data concerning public companies may be provided by Refinitiv (click for restrictions)
    Wednesday, April 24, 2024