Greeting card indies affected by plug being pulled from this route to online
One of the independent retailers’ routes to additional online sales has vanished with the Downyourhighstreet.co.uk platform going into liquidation this week.
The announcement came on Tuesday, 8 November, with the platform stopping accepting orders as founder Daniel Whytock emailed his “sincerest apologies” to all member retailers and partners, which include greeting card and gift stores such as Lark London, Nest, and Maia Gifts.
Daniel added: “We are heartbroken and know this news is going to have a detrimental impact on the small businesses we have worked so hard to support. While all communication will now be with the liquidator, it is our ultimate priority to support them to achieve a fast sale of the assets and clear the creditors’ debts.”
Samantha Gibbs, owner of Nest’s three Leicestershire stores, told PG Buzz: “I am genuinely disappointed for Dan and his team. It’s such an incredibly difficult time for businesses and Downyourhighstreet.co.uk really had worked so hard to establish their position and secure themselves in an unbelievably competitive online market.
“Nest had earned from this hard work after they secured prime television space on ITV’s Lorraine programme showcasing one of our products, from which we did very well. Despite the losses we will have to absorb from the liquidation, I honestly have nothing but empathy – it’s an unenviable place to be and it is certainly something that highlights the fragility of times we are living through.”
At Glasgow’s Maia Gifts, owner Soni Ahmed said: “We are really disappointed to learn that DYHS has gone into liquidation. We were really pleased to sell on their platform when they approached us as their ethos was to support independent companies with bricks-and-mortar stores that also have an online presence.
“We’re currently owed a considerable sum of money, so I hope the administrators can find a way to pay some of that back to us. We had reached out to DYHS recently and heard nothing and, when we were contacted by other sellers that had similar tales, we feared this was coming.
“Let’s hope they can find a buyer so the platform can continue – independents need all the help they can get to gain visibility online.”
From Lark’s 12 greeting gift and lifestyle stores in and around south and west London, co-founder Priya Aurora-Crowe commented: “We had been trying to claim our money owed for over four months and will now be losing those funds. We’re extremely frustrated as we can see that this move was already on the cards, yet they continued to take orders from small shops.
“We’re fortunate that we’re able to take this financial hit. However, after speaking to a few other smaller independents that have been involved in the scandal, they are far less lucky – one of which we know will be forced to go under.”
Daniel created website Yourhighstreet.com nine years ago, with a mission to support local retailers, then rebranded to Downyourhighstreet.co.uk and focused on working with independent retailers to help them sell online with the site going live in 2019 with crowdfunding. A Think Where You Shop campaign was launched during the pandemic and the site had the tagline Shop Locally Online.
In his email Daniel added: “It is with a very heavy heart that we are sending you, our retailers and partners this email. Nine years ago we embarked on a journey to build an online future for the UK High Street, motivated by our love for local community and business, with the investment support of friends and family.
“While sales declined, our costs grew and we are now at a stage where we cannot make enough revenue to pay retailers out and have tried every avenue to secure funding and grow sales to fix this problem. Sadly, the only option to avoid any further detriment to creditors is taking the steps ourselves to appoint a liquidator in the hope there may be some realisable assets to recover funds for creditors.”
The liquidators should be contacting retailers shortly to explain what happens next, their contact details are nicole@businesshelpline.uk, aa@businesshelpline.uk, hayley@businesshelpline.uk, phone 0800 088 2142.
