An online paradise for the young and fashion obsessed, the rumours are it is mulling a sale or an IPO.
But let us first just to recap on our series to date: a growing number of online retailers are shuffling into the queue for a possible London Stock Exchange listing or refinancing of their businesses.
Of these we see a number that are very strong candidates for finding new investors - and then others which, from the outside at least, we're struggling with.
Short of stockbrokers or advisers to cook the figures for us we decided to do some number crunching ourselves.
Last week we studied the virtues of appliances giant AO.com and did not find them wanting. Our verdict: tie in the management and founder with a ball and chain for at least three years and where do we sign up?
Today we turn our sites on fashion website Boohoo.com.
Often seen as a mini-Asos we suggest a better way to look at Boohoo.com as a Topshop online - with a Northern twang. Closest rivals are most probably fellow Mancunians Missguided.co.uk (fully owned by Japanese technology and investment corporation Nakai Investments) and New Look.
Dresses are as little as £20 and tops start around £4.
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| £20 Worth of Katie Neon Pink Sequin Skater Dress from Boohoo.com |
According to accounts filed by Wasabi Frog Limited, the website's parent company, sales almost doubled to £24.5 million in the year to the end of February 2011. That made the 18.5 per cent growth to £29 million the following year seem a little flat, even though that was more than respectable compared to many other online fashion players.
Finding more recent, reliable figures beyond the anecdotal is a little frustrating but we think evidence of continued growth is strong.
In July 2012, the Manchester Evening News reported the last financial year was off to a strong start with sales revenues up 140 per cent in April and 135 per cent in May last year.
It said 2012 was expected to be a 'triple-digit' year of growth - more than doubling the size of the business. It launched menswear in July and has been grooming the collection so far rather than hyping it (we think it's mainly aimed at girlfriends buying rather than the boys themselves).
In the next few weeks the group is expected to reveal some decent numbers for the year to February but we believe this year has also brought further success to the firm. We estimate sales in the current year to February 2014 will be at least between £75 million and £100 million.
Boohoo also employs around 650 people, mainly around Manchester, after recruiting 130 last year and announcing plans in August to take on another 50.
What's more the firm has been registering profit - amazing for such a fast growing online business (which are normally eager to dig into investment firm's pockets to sustain fast growth) and testament to the hard-nosed financial acumen of its management and its roots as a family business.
Based in Manchester's uber-trendy Northern Quarter, this business is pure grass roots rag trading brought face-to-face with the 21st Century.
Never heard of it until a few months ago? Not surprising, unless you are a teenage girl, in your early to mid 20s or have a daughter who is.
Although that might also suggest you have not been engaging with popular media, watching television or even catching the tube.
A television campaign aired for Spring/Summer and underground stations in London's top shopping spots were strategically blitzed. If the founders' mission was to get its name in the faces of a wider audience then it has worked.
We came across figures earlier this month from Kantar that showed traffic to the site had surged 22 per cent in early September - a snapshot, to be sure, but we suspect October's figures will confirm the trend when they emerge.
The September figures, produced for Drapers magazine Ecomm Index by Kantar Media, show the Manchester-based site received 791,000 unique visitors during the month. That ranked it highly against a number of other retailers of whom you would most certainly have heard.
We hear the increase in advertising on the London Underground was also intended to have a tangential effect - to raise awareness of the brand among the capital's investment community.
We have spoken to one adviser that has met Mahmud Kamani (co-founder alongside Carol Kane) in London and we hear he has met others in recent weeks.
The upshot of the talks is where the business is heading and whether this is as good a time as any to begin raising its profit for new investment or even an IPO - a float of its shares on the London Stock Exchange.
To our minds, this is unlikely to get as far as an IPO. Investors with any sense would be queuing up to support this kind of firm and a privately-held firm would allow the founders to get on with what they do best without the 'noise' that would come from being a publicly-owned, London Stock Exchange-listed firm.
Our verdict: Boohoo.com is a superb retailer but not as ripe for the markets as AO.com which we reviewed last week. Get the tech investors in, go for the one-off dividend and ready the business for a three-year float plan.
Next on the list of IPO hopefuls we will review: The Hut
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