Clothing website secures £100k cash injection

ONLINE clothing retailer Clothingsites.co.uk has secured a six-figure cash injection to launch a new website.

The Cheshire company, which operates four websites selling designer clothing for men, women and children, has launched Woodhouseclothing.com after acquiring the franchise rights and website from Four Marketing.

Woodhouse was established in 1975 as designer boutique style store in London’s fashionable Notting Hill. Clothingsites.co.uk will own and operate the online business via the Woodhouseclothing.com website.

Clothingsites.co.uk’s first website Brownbagclothing.co.uk was established in 1999 as a retailer of high end fashion and designer labels.  The company receives over 300,000 visits per month to its websites which also include Trainer Station, Clothes Co and Blue X.           

The Macclesfield-based company employs 17 people and is owned by its directors John Hirst, David Hirst and Ian McFegan.  It has a turnover of £3m.

John Hirst said: “Woodhouse Clothing is a well established traditional retailer and in a short space of time we have already created a successful online retail presence as well.  There are certain similarities between this and our existing operation and we plan to utilise the skills and knowledge that exists within Clothingsites.co.uk to build this new business.” 

The £100,000 funding package from The Royal Bank of Scotland will be used to support marketing initiatives and to purchase stock for the new business. 

Relationship manager Phil Derbyshire added: “John and his fellow directors know what it takes to build a successful online business having established and run Clothingsites.co.uk for a number of years.  We are confident this new venture will be as successful as their existing operation.”