CSN Gets $165 Million Investment

June 20, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 21, 2011

Online home furnishings retailer CSN Stores on Monday received a cash infusion of $165 million from four private equity and venture capital firms.

This is the first institutional money Boston-based CSN has raised in its nine-year history. The funding will expedite CSN's expansion efforts and bolster the company's new plan to consolidate its catalog under a fresh and memorable brand, Wayfair.com.
 
The new investors, selected by CSN founders Niraj Shah and Steven Conine, will join CSN's board and will be active advisors in growing the company; and looking four or five years into the future, the investors also will help the company when it considers an intitial public offering. The investors are Battery Ventures, Spark Capital, HarbourVest Partners and Great Hill Partners.
 
According to the company CSN has been profitable every year since its 2002 inception; and grew more than 50 percent from 2009 to 2010, with sales of $380 million. CSN reports 56 percent growth in first-quarter 2011, compared with the prior-year period; and at that rate is on track to well surpass the half-billion dollar mark by year's end. Part of the $165 million round will go toward expanding international opportunities, as well as CSN's catalog of 3 million-plus products.  Also, the funding will support appropriate acquisitions of other Internet companies specializing in categories that would benefit CSN.
 
In July and August, CSN Stores will begin to transition into Wayfair.com, a much more memorable name and brand. CSN's founders wanted a new brand that consumers can more easily relate to and recall. The Wayfair.com site will have an entirely new, updated and inviting look, and will consolidate 200 current CSN sites under one mega-site. Investment dollars also will go toward more brand marketing to launch and promote Wayfair.com later this summer and well into 2012.
 
CSN continues to expand its employment, as well, which now stands at 800 people, 250 hired last year, with another 150 added so far in 2011. The company estimates an additional 200 employees by year's end. CSN also recently added a new distribution and operations center in Ogden, Utah.