LILLICOCO

Lillicoco is a growing and well-known online Antique Jewellery store. Providing real, one-of-a-kind pieces from the Georgian, Art Deco, Victorian, and Art Nouveau eras, found in the United Kingdom. We are available online, with free worldwide express shipping.

It has been our longstanding dream to establish a firm that sells high-quality English Antique jewellery to the public on a global scale. The greatest antique jewellery in the world is centred in the United Kingdom, and only a small portion of it is available online. Finding authentic antiques is difficult and costly; fake replicas are frequent. To solve this problem, we founded Lillicoco. Using my tech start-up background and Stacey's jewellery industry expertise, we’re able to provide fine verified vintage jewellery at reasonable prices to the public globally. What makes this so unique is that we work as a team to source these unique pieces from all over the UK.

Antique jewellery is an ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to modern mass-produced jewellery. We've created a market-leading reputation and are trusted by clients and collectors worldwide, with £2,000,000 in total online sales (99% of our customers giving Lillicoco a 5-star rating). The global online jewellery market was $21.5 billion in 2020, and it is expected to grow to $60 billion by 2027. We are very excited about the opportunity to expand, especially given the current data in this quickly rising industry.

Credit Commentary:
The directors are providing a personal guarantee, this means that if the business fails the directors become personally liable for the loan. The directors are homeowners, however, there is insufficient equity available to cover this loan due to their existing debt with C2F from 2021. There have been no CCJs for the business or directors. The draft 2022 accounts show that admin costs were £507,054, depreciation and other amounts written off were £17,793, and other charges were £627,877. The admin expenses in the financial table below includes depreciation and other charges. The business received £600k of equity investment from Foresight Group LLP in 2022 (‘Foresight’), which was mostly invested in inventory, marketing, advertising and staff. Included in this investment is £240k of redeemable cumulative preference shares. These shares pay a coupon of 8% and therefore can be considered quasi-debt. The conditions of this loan includes an undertaking not to redeem the preference shares without C2F’s express permission. The costs of gaining the investment from Foresight resulted in the company reporting a net loss in the year to July 2022, as well as a net loss in the management accounts for the period to December 2022. Their aim for 2023 is to continue on a path of gradual growth with a breakeven P&L. The bank statements demonstrate reasonable affordability.

Inflation Risk:
The business advised that they have been affected by higher input costs, albeit in a limited way. Their energy bills are paid by their landlord, whom they have a fixed contract for rent with. The cost price of antique jewellery has been gradually increasing over time, but so has the retail price. Their gross margin has remained very stable over the last two years and remains stable to this day. Furthermore, every item in their inventory is bought, priced and sold individually, so they have a high degree of pricing control. In this regard, Lillicoco Ltd are well positioned to react to an inflationary environment. Their staff salaries have been increasing over time, in line with inflation. Since they have always paid their employees at the top end of market rates, this has not resulted in a shock to the business. As the majority of lending to the business is at a fixed rate, they will not be immediately affected by interest rate increases. The directors do not expect to draw money from the business as all capital is vital for the growth of the business.