Maker&Son, the British furniture brand founded by father and son, Alex Willcock and Felix Conran in 2018, was sold to Manchester-founded business group, Inc & Co on 4th August, in a multi-million-pound deal.
The fast-growing brand, founded by the third generation of the Conran family, which created the viral ‘sofa jump’ ad campaign, employs 150 people.
With headquarters, design studio and showroom in West Sussex, Maker&Son has a global presence and manufacturing outposts in the UK, Ireland, the US, Australia, Asia and New Zealand, with products made domestically in each of the territories it operates.
The brand was recently independently valued at £55m.
Inc & Co, which celebrated its third birthday in July and celebrated a milestone £30m turnover in its second year, will assume ownership of the full group, including overseas operations.
Recent acquisitions and investments by the Inc & Co group include luxury leather brand KNOMO London, F&B brand Chop’d, and King Street Grooming.
Maker&Son, a global brand for natural sustainably sourced products, does not sell in store but goes direct to customers via its unique ‘mobile showroom’.
Inc & Co has a track record for backing digitally native, high-growth businesses, and has high aspirations for the brand, including continued overseas growth, with expansion in Europe and MENA. The group has set its predicted turnover for 22/23 to be north of £130m. The Maker&Son mobile showroom will also become a familiar site across the UK, with 20 new regional locations slated for the next 18 months.
Felix Conran, co-founder of Maker&Son, says: “Our vision for the business was to put our products and people – both our team and our clients - at the heart of what we do. With this comes a true sense of British heritage and belonging for our teams, and our clients alike.
"The sale will enable us to continue our vision of creating luxury sustainable furniture. We are delighted that Inc &Co have seen the value in what we have achieved to date and are excited to work with them to write the next chapter for Maker&Son.”
Jack Mason, group CEO of Inc & Co, comments: “Inc & Co pride itself on being known for expediting acquisitions in an extremely diligent and human-centric way. We are excited to be joining Maker&Son on its business journey. It is a distinguished brand, with provenance and vision. The fast and international growth to date has proven the strength of the product and we’re looking to expand on this further.
"Inc & Co, much like Maker&Son, is honed on creating and delivering products and services for the modern, sustainably conscious and digitally aware customer. Maker&Son fits seamlessly into the Inc & Co portfolio of brands and we can’t wait get under the skin of the business.”
Maker&Son was advised in the sale by Philip Lee, while Inc & Co was advised by Glenville Walker.
Pictured, from left: Felix Conran, founder, Maker&Son; Lynne Makinson-Walsh, head of people, Inc & Co; Alex Willcock, founder Maker&Son; Jack Mason, group CEO, Inc & Co; and David Antrobus, CTO, Inc & Co
