CSN Stores to ramp up UK presence
CSN Stores, the US-based online retailer and operator of 200 niche sites including
Cookware.com and
BedroomFurniture.com, has raised $165 million (£103 million) from four private equity and venture capital firms. The company says it will use the funds to rebrand as Wayfair. com, expand locally and internationally, as well as acquire other businesses. CSN first opened
a European office, in Ireland, in 2008 at the same time as launching CookwareEssentials.
co.uk, now trading as
CookwareByCSN.co.uk. Since then, the company established a London office and opened up in Germany and Australia. Among CSN’s other UK websites are
AllModern.co.uk, FurnitureByCSN.
co.uk,
LightingByCSN.co.uk and the flagship
CSNStores.co.uk. It is understood that in the past few months, CSN transferred several of its top junior executives over to the UK in order to maximise opportunities on this side of the Atlantic. Following this recent investment,
CSN’s chief executive and cofounder Niraj Shah, said that the business will now be able to grow even faster: “Our emerging international businesses will see more resources, and we’ll be investing in a major consumer brand launch. Looking ahead four or five years, we think with the help of our investors, we are on the path to becoming a much-larger, publicly traded company.” CSN is anticipating 50 percent growth in 2011, and expects to turnover more than $500 million this year.
Donald Russell secures £5.2 million loan
Mail order butcher Donald Russell has secured £5.2 million of funding from Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets to build a new fulfilment centre. Opened in the last week of June, the new centre will help Donald Russell expand its burgeoning ecommerce business. Currently employing 190 staff and with an annual
turnover of £25 million, Donald Russell recently appointed Cavendish Corporate Finance to investigate interest from companies looking to expand into the online retail market. The business is still run by the original founders William Donald and John Stone alongside Hans Baumann as managing director.
The new Donald Russell fulfilment centre EU parliament adopts amended consumer rights rules
Small and midsized businesses can breathe a sigh of relief: members of the European parliament (MEPs), the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and the Council of the European Union have, on 16th June, agreed on amendments to the EU Consumer Rights Directive. The Council quashed proposals requiring traders to refund the return cost of goods
priced at €40 or more from anywhere in the EU. Controversial plans to force retailers to sell into every EU country have also been dropped, provided that merchants specify early in the transaction process which countries they ship to as well as disclose all costs and fees at the outset, including the total price of the goods, and the cost of return of bulky items. Direct commerce trade body CatEx
welcomed the EU’s decision. Tim Curtis, deputy chairman at CatEx Direct Commerce Association and managing director, Northern Europe, at apparel cataloguer Lands’ End, says, “This is great news. A number of the proposed amendments would actually have reduced consumer choice and cross-border trade, and we are relieved that commercial realism appears to have prevailed.”
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