Manchester e-tailer announces plans to float on AIM

Adam Frisby

Manchester-based online womenswear fashion e-tailer In The Style announced plans to float on the Alternative Investment Market, today.

The business was founded by chief executive Adam Frisby in his bedroom in 2013.

As part of the announced In The Style (ITS) also announced that two new, independent non-executive directors, Nancy Cruickshank and Adam Bellamy, will join its board of directors on admission.

Nancy is a serial technology entrepreneur and current non-executive director of Flutter Entertainment and Allegro Group amongst others, while Adam is a current non-executive director at Ten Entertainment Group and Loungers. amongst others.

ITS said it operates in the large, UK womenswear market in which the online sales element is significant and fast growing.

It has delivered unbroken revenue growth since inception in 2013 and is now an established brand within the UK e-commerce fashion market, having delivered £41m net sales in the 12 months to December 31 2020.

The majority of growth has been delivered through authentic collaborations with a growing group of influencers with high levels of engagement with their audiences on social media platforms.

The group said it has an active customer base of 0.7m customers as at December 31, 2020, up 61% when compared with the prior year.

While government restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic increased the proportion of potential customers shopping online, the growth in new customers has been driven by a number of business and product strategies including the expansion of its product ranges and an increase in the frequency of collaboration launches.

ITS expects to continue to drive further new customer acquisition in particular due to seven new partnerships agreed with influencers due to launch in 2021 as well as one of its most exciting influencers to date who is expected to launch in April 2021.

The business has delivered £35.4m net sales and £3.6m Adjusted EBITDA in the nine months to December 31, 2020, with sales up 159% from £13.7m for the nine months to December 31, 2019.

The group’s track record of delivering sales growth was initially across direct-to-consumer (D2C) e-commerce sales, but ITS has recently diversified the business with the addition of a growing B2B Partner business.

The ITS business model is cash generative, as it is supported by robust gross margins, favourable working capital dynamics – given the predominantly D2C model – and relatively low capital expenditure requirements.

The group also plans to pilot an international version of its app in another country in the financial year ending March 31, 2022, to test the opportunity, which if successful, could then be expanded and replicated further.

Admission is expected to take place on or around March 17, 2021.

Adam Frisby said: “I am so proud of the business In the Style has become.

“We are a fast-growing e-commerce womenswear fashion brand with an innovative influencer collaboration model.

“Since our launch back in 2013, we have strived to do things differently by ensuring we empower our customers to be brave, embrace body confidence and, most of all, love themselves for who they are.

“We work closely with social media influencers and celebrity partners who align with our brand values to design and launch authentic collections that are then sold through our proprietary In the Style app, e-commerce website, and selected B2B partners.

“Our collaboration model creates a strong customer connection, drives highly efficient customer acquisition marketing metrics, and gives us exposure to a broad range of customers.”

He added: “We are delighted to announce our intention to float on AIM which marks an exciting new chapter in In The Style’s journey so far.

“We have a fast-growing customer base, a highly relevant brand and a pipeline or exciting initiatives. We are confident that we can build on our strong foundation to achieve our growth plans.”

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