Online clothing brand | Full finance function and investor reporting
The finance behind a brand relaunch backed by over £6.5 million
With more than £6.5 million in secured investor funding behind its relaunch, this clothing brand needed a finance function capable of supporting the scale of its plans.
The business was returning to market through an online store. It needed the financial structure, processes and reporting to manage its launch year, plan ahead and meet the requirements attached to its investment.
We built that structure and took on the ongoing finance function, combining hands-on finance management with senior financial support.
Building the finance function around the relaunch
A relaunch creates a different set of financial demands from an established trading routine.
Marketing investment needs close attention. The business needs to understand its operating costs and how those costs will change as sales develop. Management and investors need reporting that explains where the money is going and how the plans translate into financial performance.
We shaped the accounts and reporting around those requirements.
That meant getting the foundations right from the outset and making sure the finance function could support both the everyday work and the bigger financial questions.
Making the important costs visible
We overhauled how income and expenditure were organised in the accounts and rebuilt the reporting around the measures that mattered most during the launch year.
Marketing expenditure became more detailed within the reporting. Operating costs were separated more clearly between those that remain relatively steady and those that change with trading activity.
This gave management a stronger basis for understanding the cost of running the business and how that cost might develop as it grows.
The reporting was built around the commercial workings of the brand, with the detail needed to explain its financial position.
Running the ongoing finance work
We manage the finance function alongside the reporting, including amounts owed to suppliers and compliance with the financial requirements attached to the funding.
Our role connects the underlying accounts, management information and forward planning. The regular finance work supports the information needed by the people running the business and those providing the investment.
For a brand backed by funding of this scale, that connection matters. The figures need to support a clear account of current performance and a credible explanation of what comes next.
A forecast that brings demand into the picture
We redeveloped the forecasting model to include operational measures alongside accounting information.
For a business in its launch year, expected demand is an important part of the financial plan. The model needed to reflect how the business expected to trade, as well as the figures already recorded in the accounts.
The revised forecast brings those elements together and was developed for presentation to the investor’s board.
It gives the business a clearer way to explain its expectations, the assumptions behind them and how those assumptions feed into the financial outlook.
What changed
The brand now has a finance function built around the demands of its relaunch and the requirements of its investment.
Management reporting shows exactly where marketing and operating costs are going. The forecast connects financial and operational information. The ongoing finance work supports the management team's needs alongside the funding requirements.
Together, that provides a stronger financial foundation for a business putting significant investment behind its next stage.
Standout result
A complete finance function supporting a relaunch backed by more than £6.5 million in secured funding, with a rebuilt forecasting model suitable for presentation to the investor’s board.