Draft:Amara
Comment: Does not seem to meet WP:CORPDEPTH Legacypac (talk) 20:55, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
| Industry | E-commerce |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Head Quarters | Essex, UK |
| Products | home accessories, furniture, tableware, bed linen, lighting, household appliances, home fragrance and garden ware |
| key People | Andrew Hood (CEO), Sam Hood (Creative Director), Andrew Curran (Non-Exec Director), Robin Terrell (Non-Exec Director) |
| Number of employees | 90 |
| Website | www.amara.com |
Amara is a global ecommerce store selling a range of luxury home furnishings.[1], accessories, tableware, bed linen, lighting, home fragrance and garden-ware based in the United Kingdom[2]. The company is known for selling top designer homeware brands such as Ralph Lauren Home, Roberto Cavalli, Missoni Home[3] and Fornasetti[4].
HISTORY
2005-2009
Amara was established in 2005 by husband and wife team Andrew and Sam Hood as a small high street store located in Chelmsford, Essex[5]. In 2006 Amara relocated to office space located in Rayne, Braintree[6] and launched the original website, eventually closing the store in 2008 to focus solely on the online sector[7].
2010-2014
In 2010 My-Wardrobe co-founder Andrew Curran joined the management and was appointed chairman of Amara[8] as the company reached 10 employees. In 2013 the workforce expanded to 25 and the company decided to outsource the services of a third-party logistics company, and moved the entire Amara warehouse to Delamode[9], located in Braintree. This facilitated exporting success when Amara launched its international website www.amara.com, allowing the company to go global, resulting in international sales[10] growing by an average of 129% over two years to £2m in 2014[11].
2014-Present
This international growth increased further in 2015 when they acquired rival site Gift Library domain[12] and the company now have dedicated websites in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UAE and Ireland, along with local-language French and German websites[13]. International sales[14] now contribute to 50% of income[15] with the company achieving annual sales of £15m[16]. In 2015, Stefan Cassar was appointed Chairman of the board[17] and later in 2016 Tesco’s former Chief Customer Officer Robin Terrell[18] also joined the board as Non-Executive Director in November 2016[19]. Most recently, former Director of Customer Insight at House of Fraser, Madeleine Melson[20] was appointed the company’s first Chief Customer Officer[21].
PRODUCT RANGES
Missoni Home, 2015 – Amara is the largest stockist of Missoni homeware and to celebrate their tenth anniversary launched an exclusive range of products[22]. The Missoni Home for Amara collection[23] includes a variety of cushions and in fabrics from the Missoni Home selected especially for Amara[24]
Mulberry Home, 2016 - March 2016 saw the launch of the Mulberry Home Collection[25], also exclusive to Amara. The 27-piece collection includes cushions, draught excluders and door stops[26].
A by Amara, 2016 – Since September 2016, Amara has released bi-annual own label collections under the name A by Amara[27]. The collections include Amara’s own bed linen, soft furnishings, tableware and accessories[28]
COMMUNITY
Blog Awards - In 2014 Amara hosted the first Amara Interior Blog Awards each year since to work closely with the interior blogging community.[29] Held at London venues such as Rosewood, London and Ham Yard Hotel, the awards celebrate the best of the international interior blogging world with an expert judging panel of interior specialists deciding the winners[30]. Its success has continued to grow[31] and is now in its 4th year.[32] The number of participating blogs increased from 290 in 2014 to 800 in 2017 and gold sponsors now include names like Ugg and Roberto Cavalli.
Student Interior Designer of the Year - In 2017 Amara ran its first Student Interior Designer of the year competition. Interior design students across the country from the UK’s leading universities were given a brief to design a luxury scandi-inspired London apartment to be in with the chance of winning a £3,000 interior design scholarship and a 2-week internship at Amara head office[33]. Students were shortlisted and then creative director Sam Hood chose a winner and two runners up[34].[35]
RECOGNITION
- Shortlisted for the European Call Centre & Customer Service Awards as a finalist in the ‘Best online customer services’ and ‘Best retail customer services’ categories, 2013[36]
- Placed 11th in The Sunday Times BT Business SME Export Track 100, 2015[37][38][39][40]
- Placed 30th in The Sunday Times BT Business SME Export Track 100, 2016[41]
- Won the Birketts Best Overall Large Employer award produced by eras in collaboration with Pure, 2016[42]
- Placed 45th in The Sunday Times Best 100 Small Companies to work for, 2017[43]
- Placed 45th in The Sunday Times Best 100 Small Companies to work for, 2018[44]
- Named as one of Feefo’s Gold Trusted Merchants three years consecutively, 2015, 2016, 2017[45]
- (Associate) Industry Partner, British Institute of Interior Design[46]
- The Luxpad, shortlisted for Lifestyle category in UK Blog Awards 2018[47]
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