Hayche

Idea

Introduction

Hayche was founded on the belief that creativity has the power not only to transform and enhance people's lives, but to generate good business too.

Founded back in 2014 by Mexican architect and product designer Alejandro Villarreal, the brand has grown a following for it's uniquely Hayche aesthetic paired with the quality craftsmanship achieved by working with family-run manufacturers in Portugal and Italy.

They have been awarded the “Elle Decoration British Design Awards 2016” and have been nominated for several awards, including the “Interior Design Best of Year 2016 - New York”. Along with features in the top design and interiors press, their furniture can be found anywhere from Ted Baker shops, to Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton hotels, as well as in homes around the world.

Now at a critical point in their growth, it's time to develop new products and invest in stock, digital marketing and supporting the first showroom in Clerkenwell – London's design district.

Intended impact

We believe that beautiful design has the power to transform and enhance our lives. But so often our throwaway culture of furniture and fashion prevents us from truly loving the things we buy. We feel that designing for the temporary means details go unresolved, materials are less important and opportunities to push the boundaries are missed or ignored.

Hayche is answering the need in all of us to own things worth keeping, appealing to hotels, restaurants, homeowners and interior designers looking to say something with the furniture they choose.

The collection currently reaches over 170 customers in 19 countries – retailing through stockists in London, the UK and Europe, at trade shows and through the companies own online store, social media and showroom.

Expanding upon their existing seating range, Hayche plans to include Living Room, Outdoor and Lighting collections, allowing them to meet the demand we've felt in the market for natural, sustainable materials crafted into timeless and iconic pieces.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Since the creation of the full team in February 2018, the sales pipeline has increased to over £250k, unique web visitors and page views have increased by 134%, and we’ve seen a jump in social engagement to over 17k Instagram followers.

The launch of a focused product range with 4 collections spanning 20 different products.

Hayche has won one prestigious design award; The 2016 Elle Decoration British Design Award, and has been nominated for a few more including the Interior Design Best of Year 2016 - New York. Our WW Chair is on the shortlist to win a Design Guild Mark 2019.

Featured over 75 times, across 50 publications in more than 10 countries, including Elle Decoration, Wallpaper, Interior Design, Monocle, House & Garden, Icon, Azure.

Clients include Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, Paul Smith, Channel 4, Silvera, Ted Baker, BP Arquitectura, Sofia Aspe, G F Smith, Nomos Glashutte, FCO services, Peebles Hydro Hotel, Wiltshire Grand Los Angeles, Conran Contracts, Atelier de Hoteles and Advanced Food Company.

12 trade shows including Clerkenwell Design Week and Decorex in London.

Opening of our first showroom in October 2018, on the Clerkenwell design district in London.

Monetisation strategy

We have a varied revenue mix shared across architects, interior designers, wholesalers, retailers and direct sales. The largest share, occupied by architects and interior designers, represent over 50% of the revenue base.

The next steps are to further capitalise on these relationships, respond to larger tenders and increase our contacts to include corporate clients such as restaurants, hotels and co-working spaces – a stable base of income with a clear route to continued growth.

Direct purchases represent the second largest revenue stream with 20% of the base. This enables us to increase brand awareness and strengthen our presence in the industry – often leading to further sales and the successful tender of larger-scale commercial projects.

Finally, 15% is generated by retail, traders and wholesale, primarily through our self managed site, which is enabled by a successful performance marketing strategy, careful SEO management, Instagram, content marketing and utilising AdWords and Google shopping.

Marketing Strategy

Our marketing strategy consists of three key drivers – engagement with existing fans, contacts and consumers, acquisition through brand awareness and performance marketing activities and moving to a stock-based strategy which will allow us to retail on more sites.

So far, organic Instagram activities have accounted for around 10% of our sales in 2018, so the investment in these types of activities is expected to have a significant impact. We’ll also begin a retargeting campaign to ensure we’re consistently front of mind.

Brand awareness and performance marketing will include a heavier focus on PR, utilising key contacts to continue to generate coverage. We've also been shortlisted to the final round for a Design Guild Mark for our WW chair.

Finally, our move towards a stock-focused strategy will enable us to optimise our store for direct sales, gather more reviews to boost customer trust and use Google Shopping to open the door to high-margin customers.

Investor Perks

Please note that any discounts, rewards and/or offers listed by a company in its campaign are subject to the terms and conditions applied by that company and listed above. It is the company’s responsibility to honour such discounts, rewards and/or offers and Seedrs does not take any responsibility for them.

Competition Strategy

In furniture, much like fashion, we believe that each house or brand’s ability to compete is based primarily on the strength of their design. This is both to provide something unique to the market but also to stay relevant as seasons, trends and aesthetics change. With the entire furniture market size projected to be worth $718b by 2025, we believe the market is large with enough room for multiple brands to co-exist.

So with an award-winning design aesthetic, exclusive production on our pieces and rights protection underway on our designs, we are well equipped to stay competitive within the luxury furniture market.

Not only have we focused on design, we’ve also worked towards ensuring that our processes and sales practises mean we can stay at the forefront of the industry. For example, we use 3D printing to speed up our development processes which means we can get products to market much faster. And then, using photorealistic 3D rendering, we’re able to display our products in multiple colourways providing a much better experience for customers and our growing network of interior design clients.

Use of proceeds

With the WW Chair a proven success, funds will be used to expand the family into Dining & Side Tables, a Desk and Storage pieces.

30 new furniture pieces in the pipeline, designed by four up and coming designers that will allow Hayche to expand upon their seating offer that are designed to achieve more affordable prices. Funding will help with the pace of expansion, allowing for more prototypes, supplier visits, marketing, trade shows and growing the team.

The funds will also allow Hayche to expand into the lighting category, which we believe will be lucrative, and start to expand beyond furniture. The team already have exciting and commercial new furniture designs ready, and the technical knowhow to bring them to market, and will use the funds to finance the new product developments and stock. Lighting is a growth area across the homewares industry and a perfect marriage with our existing product range. We feel that we can also achieve a high margin and high volume product for our target market.

NOTICE:

Please note, the company has 2 loans outstanding. The first is a directors' loan of £298,971.00 with a 5% interest rate. The loan is to be repaid in 24 monthly instalments of £13,080 once the company becomes profitable.

The second is a short term loan of £20,000 with a 5% interest rate from a private individual. This will be repaid in 5 monthly instalments of £4,100, starting in May 2019. Investors funds won't be used to repay any of these loans.