ONLINE retailer Buy It Direct has snapped up one of the UK’s largest web-based furniture businesses.

The Deighton-based company, which sells products ranging from TVs, laptops and cameras to kitchen appliances and pushchairs, has bought Furniture 123 for an undisclosed sum.

Nick Glynne, managing director of Buy it Direct, said: “We finalised the deal at the end of last year, but we have taken over now and it has become fully operational this week.”

The business has transferred to Buy It Direct’s headquarters at Trident Business Park.

No new jobs have been created with the takeover, although Mr Glynne said the aim was to double revenue in the next 12 months, which could lead to the creation of about four jobs.

Three existing staff have been retained to run Furniture 123’s satellite office in Leeds.

Furniture 123 was the first online furniture business in the UK when it was launched in 2000.

Mr Glynne said the company had struggled to grow once the market became more competitive – but as part of Buy it Direct, the business would become more efficient and profitable.

He said: “Furniture 123 is one of the best known names in online furniture retailing and acquiring the business makes sound strategic sense for us.

“We understand online retailing very well and are excited at the prospect of moving into the furniture sector.”

Julian Field, formerly chief executive of Furniture 123, said: “We are pleased that Furniture123 has been acquired by a large and well-established online retailer.

“The synergies that Buy It Direct can bring to bear will ensure that Furniture123 will prosper in an increasingly competitive market.”

The products, which include beds, wardrobes, dining room sets and children’s furniture, are sourced from Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Thailand and Indonesia.

They will be dispatched to customers direct from the supplier or via Buy It Direct’s distribution centres in Huddersfield and Nottingham.

Mr Glynne said: “Furniture is sold online very badly.

“The pictures are generally poor and customers have to wait three or four weeks for delivery.

“We will aim for next-day delivery and we will offer good quality merchandise, very competitively priced.

“Luckily for us, a lot of furniture retailers are happy to live in the past.

“It is the last bastion of the bungling amateur and no-one ever thought it would be traded online.

“I think the market is huge – it’s one of the last product sets to move online and given our understanding of online, my hope is that we will again be the largest online furniture player in the UK.”

Buy it Direct began in 2000 in a small shop in Fartown and has grown from a £100,000 a year business employing one part-time taxi-driver/computer technician to a £100m enterprise with more than 160 staff.