King Dicky Clothing Ltd
We intend to make Pontypridd, a town in South Wales in post-industrial decline, into the European capital of pre-loved clothing by setting up a vintage superstore in town and then inviting similar enterprises to join it and fill the main streets empty shops. Its efforts are inspired by what Richard Booth did in another Welsh town, Hay-On-Wye, whose fortunes were saved by becoming the second-hand book capital of the world.
Nanial Jones is currently the subject of the 14th most popular program on BBC iPlayer, “Young, Welsh, Bossin’ It” on BBC Three and is talking with broadcasters for a follow-on series charting the ups and downs of his latest venture provisionally titled ‘Making, Hay in Ponty”.
Central to the business model is that a thousand garments will be placed on Ebay every ten days and sold via auction to ensure a constant turnover of inventory that will help attract consumers to check out the shops racks before the good are placed online. We are convinced that the enterprise could be innovative in the use of artificial intelligence in the way that it acquires clothes. Overall, the best prices for its merchandise will be achieved using the auction methodology and also as garments could be sold for anything from a few pennies to hundreds of pounds the stock will need to be renewed.
We would like to engage with a partner that can help us use technology to monitor trends and analyse prices achieved so that the enterprises profitability is maximised and the staff who are engaged on a flat salary plus profit share are motivated going forward.
The company believes that combining online sales with a physical offering is the way to revitalise high streets such as Pontypridd’s which are in what appears to be terminal decline. The company has already secured support from the local authority and Ebay but recognises that the functionality it needs to inform its buying doesn’t currently exist and therefore has reached out to the Future Fashion Factory.
Strengths – King Dicky Clothing’s founder has been the subject of a high-profile television series and will subsequently be able to raise the profile of the Future Fashion Factory primarily in Wales but with wider reaches across the UK.
One of the directors already runs a successful vintage clothing company and is aware of current trends in the market and hopes that some of the partnerships you’ve created in Humberside and Yorkshire could find strong commercial outlets in South Wales and the West of England.
- Listing ID: 2118
- Contact: Daniel Huw Jones
- What are your aspirations and plans for the future?: King Dicky Clothing aims to turn Pontypridd into the vintage clothing capital of the UK if not Europe or even the world. Our main drive for the future is to place as many vintage clothing stores in the town centre as possible as quickly as possible with the aim of creating a much sought-after ‘destination’ location for alternative green fashion.
- What types of projects are you interested in working on through Future Fashion Factory?: In order for the business to run successfully a large throughput of stock must take place. In conjunction with this, software needs to be put in place to aim ‘intelligent buying’ allowing the company to understand which items are selling for a higher price as well as analysing current trends to influence purchasing. We have also been made aware of ‘shoddy’ manufacturing by the Future Fashion Factory and believe that this could be a mutually beneficial link in regards to creating ‘new’ garments out of old clothing which is in line with the company's ‘nothing new’ ethos.