Comment: Occa aims to emulate Asos

While big retailers that are likely to attract big valuations rush to market, there’s action at the other end of the scale too.

This week homewares etailer Occa Home won a new round of investment and drafted in some big hitters to steer it through a new phase of growth.

Compared with Poundland or Pets at Home - both among the IPO candidates - Occa is a tiddler. It turns over only a few million a year and the latest fundraising was just £2m.

However, the new investors include former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy. And former John Lewis buying,
merchandising and strategy director Jill Little has joined the board, following the appointment of former Best Buy director Bob Willett as chairman in July.

Interesting to note too is that among Occa’s backers is the William Currie Group. William Currie Group has a good track record of identifying retail potential. Currie himself, a former analyst, created The Fragrance Shop, but in recent years the focus has been online - like Occa.

The investor has a stake in The Hut and was early to put cash into online fashion phenomenon Asos. The ambition presumably is for Occa to become the Asos of homewares.

Retail tech IPOs

It’s not just retailers that are heading to market - some of their suppliers are too.

MoPowered, a mobile commerce technology specialist that counts Next and Waterstones among its customers, intends to float on AIM.

The convergence of retail and technology has been one of the defining trends of the last few years as consumers embrace new ways of shopping using mobile devices.

No doubt there will be more tech IPOs in the near future. That should be good for retail generally as it will create a bigger base of technology providers on the strengthened financial platform a listing can bring.