Holly and Beau

Idea

Introduction

Founded in 2015 by Brother and Sister Jack and Fleur, Holly and Beau is a children’s clothing brand, specialising in colour changing outerwear.

Using patentable technology, Holly and Beau have created a range of children’s clothing and accessories’ that magically change colour with water.

The idea behind the business started from a University project, where we first saw the concept used in babies’ products. We applied the colour changing concept onto a range of children’s rainwear items, creating a fun and unique clothing range that soon became popular.

Holly and Beau, although headquartered in the UK, is a global business, with the company’s main markets located in the USA, South Korea, Australia and Europe.

The company also has a very active social media presence and is proud to have some well-known celebrity customers!

Intended impact

Up to this point Holly and Beau have been selling colour changing raincoats and umbrellas to wholesale customers, as well as large U.S department stores such as Nordstrom and Dillard’s. By focusing on wholesale, we have reduced overheads such as marketing and advertising events, allowing us to invest working capital into research and development resulting in the creation of an exciting new technology.

NEW TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCTS

Following the completion of this successful three year project the company has created some amazing IP which will enable us to broaden our product range dramatically. We are now ready to use this new technology to take the next step and deliver the first of our new products.

First to launch will be our incredible new colour changing children’s swimwear collection! This colour changing swimwear will be an industry first and one that will disrupt the global swimwear market, by offering something completely unique.

As a result kids will be able enjoy wearing Holly and Beau products all year round!

Competitors will be unable to replicate this product due to the unique technology that we have created.

EXISTING RAINWEAR RANGE

The swimwear range will compliment the existing rainwear range and help to remove the seasonality aspect of the current business. We expect that sales of the existing range will benefit significantly from the increased profile of the Holly and Beau brand as a result of the swimwear launch.

As well as continuing to grow our wholesale accounts and distribution through large department stores, we also want to push our website e-commerce (Direct-to-Consumer) sales channel through creative and fun marketing campaigns, to increase brand awareness, on social media.

Our long-term goal is to be the industry leading brand in the children’s outerwear and swimwear markets. With your investment we can start these marketing campaigns and showcase our products on social media for the world to see!

Substantial accomplishments to date

We have come a long way since the early days of our business. We’ve invested heavily into R&D so that we’re able to create a truly industry disrupting children’s wear brand through the development of new exciting technology.

Innovation of the Year Award (Nectar Card Business)

Raised over £200k in our first Seedrs investment round (March 2018) from over 400 investors (overfunded by 180%)

Also raised significant capital previously via Crowdcube and follow-on private rounds with existing shareholders.

AN ESTABLISHED GLOBAL BUSINESS

A proven business concept that is now ready to scale globally and increase the product collection

Establishing strong sales channels in the United States, Italy and South Korea with new demand being generated across Europe.

Now stocked in two of the largest department stores in the United States; Dillard’s and Nordstrom.

Seen on celebrities’ children such as; Jessica Simpson, Rachel Zoe, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel etc.

FINANCIALS

Average annual sales growth of 80% - 100% year-on-year.

The company is now profitable. For the year ended 31 July 2019 Holly and Beau generated EBITDA of £47k, with a Gross Margin of 55% and EBITDA margin of 12%.*

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

Since our last fundraise we have been busy redeveloping the Holly and Beau website to provide for a slicker experience. This was formally launched in July 2019.

We have also been working closely with Jamie Marcos Hernandez (see our Team Page) to optimise Holly and Beau’s position on Google Search.

NEW PRODUCT RANGES

Our new multiple patentable technology will allow us to apply the colour changing concept to a huge range of different products.

Created an exciting new swimwear collection using our new IP technology. The fabric will also be 100% recycled polyester, made from plastic bottles!

Footwear to follow hopefully later in 2020!

Monetisation strategy

The business is now profitable*, and the year-to-date sales have been achieved with no real marketing, due to our research and development commitments. Our social media following (Instagram 10.2k and Facebook 13k) has grown organically. With our planned increased marketing campaign we expect these numbers to increase significantly over the next 12-18 months.

We have built strong relationships with the manufacturers of Holly and Beau products in Asia. As we have grown, we have been able to stream-line the production process and renegotiate our supplier contracts to drive down the unit cost of our product lines. Coupled with increased efficiencies in logistics (both shipping and warehousing) we have been able to improve our Gross Margin to 55% for the last financial year.

SALES CHANNELS

We have three major sales channels:

Wholesale and distributors (currently approx. 90% of total revenue)
Our products are currently sold through wholesale accounts in the United States, South Korea and Europe. We also supply two major U.S department stores; Nordstrom and Dillard’s. Each company has approx. 300 department stores across the United States.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC)
Now with your help we can invest into a marketing campaign to drive traffic to our website and increase our direct to consumer-based sales channels. We will also benefit from larger profit margins, allowing us to scale quicker and expand into exciting new markets.

Licensing to South Korea [New for Q4 2020]
The brand will soon be licensed to our South Korean distributor, allowing the products to be adapted to the demands of the Korean consumer as well as speeding up the route to market. Building a strong brand in South Korea will provide us with the opportunities to grow the brand in other major Asian markets such as Japan and China.

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH

To this point we have been limited to two product lines, raincoats and umbrellas. Now it is time to take the business to a whole new level. Our colour changing swimwear will be something completely new to the market.

Not only is this exciting from the opportunity to grow the top-line of the business, it will also solve the seasonality issue we have with only offering rainwear products, which are typically only purchased by consumers in Autumn and Winter.

We will be pricing the new range competitively but will still be able to generate a healthy Gross Profit on this range, with the initial focus on launching the swimwear exclusively on the Holly and Beau website.

Use of proceeds

We are seeking a minimum investment of £70,000 to grow our business and accelerate growth plans;

70% - Marketing and brand awareness through social media to build our direct to consumer sales channel via the Holly and Beau website. (£49,000)

30% - Rolling out the production of our exciting new colour changing swimwear collection with a launch date targeted for early Spring this year (£21,000)

EIS Approved Scheme – UK tax relief @30% available on this investment.

* Based on unaudited management accounts