Rapid growth for online antiques marketplace firm
Leeds-based antiques online selling business, Vintage Cash Cow, has hit an annual turnover of £4.5m less than five years since it was founded.
It has also passed a milestone of 40,000 customers, growing its customer base by 13% in the past quarter alone despite initially experiencing setbacks due to the pandemic.
The company was set up to make selling people’s old and vintage items fast, fair and simple through a free-to-use postal service.
The most popular items sold include jewellery, precious metals, silver and silver plates, watches, medals, militaria, toys, cameras, old currency, and more.
Vintage Cash Cow currently sells more than 8,000 lots of items each month – containing both individual pieces and bulk groups – across multiple auction houses and online marketplaces.
At the beginning of the pandemic the company was close to losing everything, with monthly boxes dropping by 70% and staying at that level from April to June.
After having to furlough 25 of 32 staff members, Vintage Cash Cow improved its website, upgraded its customer relationship management system and developed a better strategy for its paid advertising.
Its team was also able to use the forced slow down to forge partnerships with auction houses and begin selling through its own e-commerce store exclusively in China.
After the first lockdown the business got 24 of its 25 staff back to work, and since then has grown its team from 32 employees to 52.
The Vintage Cash Cow warehouse
The company also has five placements active with the Government’s Kickstart Scheme and hopes to offer at least 10 people currently out of work a new job at the start of 2021.
It now predicts a turnover of around £15m to 20m in 2021, aims to grow its headcount to 100 people and buy in excess of 5,000 boxes per month before the end of next year.
The business, backed by Dutch investors including Laurens Groenendijk, founder of JustEat and Treatwell, Bas Beerens of WeTransfer and Daan Donders of So Connect, was co-founded by antique trader Antony Charman and marketing specialist David Weaver.
Charman said: “This year has been a rollercoaster ride for us and we’re extremely grateful to end it on a high note.
“The improvements put in place have allowed us to help more people than ever before, bringing space, calm and extra income to our customers, who are now even more interested in exploring the option of making money online in a hassle-free way, with no hidden costs and fees.”
Weaver, added: “The pandemic challenged us to turn our customer journey into a far better experience to deliver significant growth – something we hadn’t had an opportunity to do before.
“Reaching more customers means more people will get cash for their valuable clutter, bringing us closer to our goal of recycling the world.”
Vintage Cash Cow has a 107,000 sq ft facility and a team of experts in all things vintage to assess the products that arrive.
Part of the family is David Hakeney, previously an antique dealer expert on Dickinson’s Real Deal TV show, who has over 50 years worth of experience.
The company is now working towards expanding to the US, with its .com website now live and generating a waiting list.
