The Modern Nursery
Hilco Streambank (“Hilco”) is seeking offers to acquire the intellectual property and stock of The Modern Nursery Limited (In Liquidation) (“The Modern Nursery” or the “Company”) on behalf of the Liquidator of the Company, Brian Baker of Moore Kingston Smith & Partners LLP.
Launched in 2015, The Modern Nursery is a thoughtfully-designed online store inspiring parents to create modern, contemporary fun spaces for their children to nest and play. With a fresh interior design-led focus, The Modern Nursery offered stylish and sustainable Scandi-inspired nursery and playroom furniture, décor and toys, including a range of own-brand products.
The Company sought to distinguish itself from its competitors with a vision for nurseries and playrooms that are stylish and contemporary whilst still being great fun spaces for children to develop and thrive, rather than spaces filled with cheap and garish plastic throwaway items dominated by the ethos “pink for a girl, blue for a boy.”
The Company quickly established itself as one of the leading luxury furniture brands for babies and children, with customers flocking to the Company for beautiful nurseries, unmatched service and expert advice. The Company stocked stunning designs from leading brands like Oliver Furniture, Cam Cam Copenhagen, Sebra and Liewood and boasted its own exclusive products, expertly hand-crafted with the finest materials.
Before Liquidation, the Company had developed a robust digital marketing strategy that solidified its position as a leading lifestyle brand, with a loyal client base in and around the UK, a popular and attractive e-commerce website and an enviable social media presence, with c. 400k followers across its various platforms.
This opportunity offers a prospective buyer the unique opportunity to acquire a well-known and carefully cultivated brand with an enviable online presence, a sizeable database of loyal former customers and related intellectual property assets to reignite the business or bolt on to a current business and capitalise on market demand for stylish, aesthetically pleasing children’s homeware and lifestyle products.
The Modern Nursery Brand
The Modern Nursery brand is well-known and highly regarded, attracting swathes of parents who believe that nurseries and playrooms should be beautifully designed spaces where their little ones love to learn, rest and play.
The brand has been featured prominently by various media outlets, garnering attention from the likes of The Evening Standard and The Sunday Times. The brand was also showcased on television, featuring on popular TV shows Sam & Billie: The Mummy Diaries and Ferne McCann: First Time Mum on ITV.
The Modern Nursery brand was also awarded Best Lifestyle/Interiors Boutique for two years in a row, The Good Web Guide for Best Children’s Website and more.
The Company built an attractive brand of a leading lifestyle company for the social media age, with a portfolio of influential celebrity clients and hundreds of thousands of loyal customers across the UK and beyond.
The Company’s popular online website and engaging social media accounts support the brand, with c. 400k followers across Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok.
Trade Marks
The Company holds registered trade marks in relation to the “The Modern Nursery” brand name and logo.
Domain Names
The Company holds a portfolio of The Modern Nursery-branded domain names, including the primary themodernnursery.com domain name, which hosts the Company’s attractive and professionally designed e-commerce website.
A full domain name schedule is available via a virtual data room.
The Platform
The Company owns the copyright in the content of the stylish themodernnursery.com website and platform (the “Platform”), a leading e-commerce store offering trendy, eco-friendly children’s toys, nursery furniture and and playroom décor.
The Platform is the ultimate destination for design-led, Scandi-inspired children’s nursery and playroom products from the UK and beyond, providing access to a curated collection of stylish and contemporary children’s products.
The Platform’s “Inspiration Hub” also features helpful and thoughtful articles on complementary topics, including advice on gender-neutral gifting, tips for travelling with children and advice on teaching children to ride a bike. Featuring curated photography and tailored content produced in-house, the Platform’s colour scheme of delicate pastel hues perfectly represents the thoughtfully curated brand.
From January to December 2021, the Platform attracted c. 922k visitors. A high proportion of the traffic to the website is organic or, with a significant portion of the visitors also referred via the Company’s popular social media channels. From January 2021 to September 2021, the Platform generated over £1.6m in revenue and facilitated over 21k transactions, with an average order value of c. £76.
Social Media Accounts
An enviable social media following supports The Modern Nursery brand:
Instagram – @themodernnursery c. 290k followers
Facebook – The Modern Nursery c. 32k followers
TikTok – @themodernnursery c. 19.9k followers
Pinterest – @t_modernnursery c. 8.6k followers
Customer Data
The Company’s vast database of over 148k customer records is available to acquire.
Supplier Data
The Company maintained a database of its c. 50 key suppliers, which is also available to acquire.
Inventory
Stock may be available to acquire.
Offers are due Friday 24 March 2023 at 4pm GMT.
All expressions of interest and bids are to be directed to Hilco in writing. A Bid Submission Form is available on request. Please contact Hilco to gain access to a virtual data room for further information on signing a confidentiality agreement.
The Liquidator acts as an agent of the Company and without personal liability.
The bidder acknowledges that Hilco acts as an agent for the Liquidator who offers for sale only what right, title and interest (if any) the Company possesses in the assets. Such sale will be without any warranties, expressed or implied. The information provided has not been verified by Hilco or the Liquidator and bidders are deemed to have carried out their own due diligence.
A 10% Buyer’s Premium is applicable. VAT, if applicable, at 20% will be added to the price. A non-refundable deposit of 20% will be payable by the buyer within 48 hours of bid acceptance. Legal completion to occur within 5 business days of bid acceptance. Hilco’s full terms and conditions apply.
To register your interest and for further information about the sale process, please contact the following Hilco Streambank representatives:
