British tailor Mark Marengo is seeking a £90,000 revenue loan on Crowd2Fund.com, to expand its Saville Row business.
The company was first established in 2005 by founder Mark Marengo, who began his career working as a tie salesman. Marengo then began designing his own suits and shirts, before launching his own business on Saville Row eight years ago.
The company’s products are manufactured in Italy by small workshops, with a significant emphasis on their handmade elements. As well as retailing online, Mark Marengo products are wholesaled both in the UK and internationally. The company has had particular success in well-known retailers such as Harvey Nichols, where Mark Marengo’s Asian fit suit brand is the best selling suit line throughout the store.
The business’ early success has led to plans for further expansion; Marengo aims to ramp up online sales, as well as focussing on international buyers, where Savile Row name and connotations travel well. The company already has plans to start selling through Secoo.com, the main online luxury portal in China. They plan to dovetail these efforts by introducing visiting tailoring teams in both China and other countries.
Marengo says:
“We are intending to push the business online using free publicity which Savile Row gives us, and send our visiting tailors to visit CEOs of banks. With this model we can launch a business very quickly in America, Australia or Japan.”
He chose to raise the debt funds through crowdfunding, rather than a traditional lender due to alternative finance offering the opportunity to reach brand advocates, as well as banks lacking the foresight to understand his business.
“The banks are very unapproachable and they lack vision even if security is offered,” he says. “Crowdfunding enables you to share your aspiration with like minded investors based on a solid business plan.”
The company is seeking a £90,000 revenue loan on Crowd2Fund.com. As well as offering an interest rate of 9 percent, the campaign offers a number of rewards to investors who inject cash above certain thresholds; these include scaling annual discounts of up to 25 percent. For more information, visit their campaign page here.
