Leeds-HQ’d online furniture retailer Dusk.com has reportedly appointed investment banks to spearhead its planned £300m London Stock Exchange flotation.
According to Sky News, Dusk has chosen Panmure Liberum and Zeus to help manage an initial public offering, which is scheduled to take place later this year.
Dusk has amassed a two million-strong customer base in the decade since serial entrepreneur Jason Walker established the company in September 2016, with repeat customers now accounting for over half of all transactions.
The £300m valuation would put its equity roughly on a par with that of its already listed room revival rival DFS Furniture, Sky said.
Sky’s sources report that founder and executive chair Walker plans to retain a major shareholding in the company after it goes public.
Dusk’s rapid growth has been a welcome success story in an industry which has been battling the dual chellenges of waning consumer confidence and rising costs in recent years, Sky said. Made, another online home and lifestyle player, collapsed into administration in 2022, with the remnants being snapped up by Next – another retailer on the up with reports today it could be poised to snap up high-end department store Harvey Nichios.
Dusk’s revenues rose 28% to £195m in the year to the end of March.
The etailer targets a lower price point for its products than many rivals, arguing that its online-only model enables it to minimise overheads, although it has been known to venture into physical retail on occasion, not least with its recent pop-up store in Manchester Arndale in the spring, which saw this reporter’s living room in the new flat kitted out without the need to be dragged round the retail parks of Old Trafford again.
