Bluebella has just completed a £500k raise on Crowdcube and will most probably go on to stretch that to a far higher figure.
Its a sound enough business, good stockists, good team and quality product. It has moved away from licensing and intends to sell its own brand on line and in stores around the world.
All of that aside, with Christmas coming up, the deal for investing just £100 was a no brainer. The company is EIS eligible so your investment is already just £70. The company then offer you a 25% on a purchase. So lets say you need some new lingerie or lots of lovely Christmas pressies (not for your Granny), all you have to do is buy £300 - or roughly 10/15 items - and you have already made a profit even if the company goes bust tomorrow. Now that's exactly what HMRC had in mind when they set off EIS - cheap underwear.
If you invest £2000, then you get 35% off for a whole year. So all you have to do, is spend £4k in a year on all your girlfriends (and who knows maybe you might like to try some yourself) and again you have made money even if the company goes bust the following year.
£25k gets you a lifetime offer of 40% off. Of course the lifetime offers do depend on the company lasting that long. As the stated intention is a trade sale in 3 years these 'lifetime' offers seem a slightly dubious.
It's a been a very well organised campaign where the rewards have made a massive difference - if you like designer pants and things. And for once Crowdcube have not hidden (well its not that well hidden) the fact that £400k of the £500k had already been raised by 'cornerstone' investors. Hey ho.
It only received one gold and two silver medals from CrowdRater but has been an enormous hit with the Christmas Crowd. Or at least with £100k of them! You might be inclined to think it's yet another sign we are up the crack without a paddle.
Bear in mind, this is a company coming from £3.7m revenue and £400k profit in 2014... predicted numbers for 2016 are £1.7m revenue and a loss of more than £400k
ReplyDeleteShouldnt that be Bare Behind? There are very good reasons for the changes in revenues and profits - change of angle of attack.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sorry about the typo. Well, change of angle of attack is a very convenient explanation, just like increased losses in order to gain market share which you criticized before.
ReplyDeleteQuestion is whether it was a voluntary decision, or whether Tesco was unhappy with the product and cancelled / didn't renew the contract. But I doubt they would tell you if it was the latter.
To be fair, it does say that the discount is for the "lifetime" of the holding, not the shareholder. So, if they are bought out, the discount would end.
ReplyDelete