Lore Group has announced that its second London property – One Hundred Shoreditch – will open its doors in Autumn 2021.

The 258-bedroom hotel will have six restaurants and bars including a seafood restaurant & wine bar, a destination cocktail bar, and a roof terrace plus five meeting and event spaces.

The overhaul of the property’s interiors is led by Lore Group Creative Director Jacu Strauss and his team: “The redesign reflects how Shoreditch has evolved during the last decade with the interiors mirroring the new grown-up character of the neighbourhood. In the guest rooms emphasis is placed on calm and comfort, while the restaurant and bar spaces retain the fun and energy for which this part of London is so well known.”

Strauss adds: “In the case of One Hundred Shoreditch we wanted to work with elements of the previous design, and in doing so embrace a sustainable approach by keeping some features and enhancing them to elevate the design and create a new guest experience.”

One Hundred Shoreditch will offer the largest choice of restaurants and bars within one hotel in the area, including a restaurant and wine bar specialising in locally and sustainably sourced seafood. The property will feature an expanded rooftop bar and terrace, offering panoramic views over East London and towards the City.

The hotel will also be home to five flexible meetings and events spaces suitable for everything from private dining and receptions to meetings and weddings. The largest space, surrounded by floor to ceiling glass, offers views of the London city skyline.

“The opening of our new hotel in Shoreditch reflects the growth and evolution that have taken place over the last 15 years in the area,” says David Taylor, Lore Group’s Chief Operating Officer. “We will offer something for everyone across our 6 restaurants and bars and 258 tranquil bedrooms, all representing consistently good value.”

Victoria Plum has secured a £7m flexible facility from Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance to support further growth, following record sales by the company.

The specialist online bathroom retailer, owned by private equity fund Endless, reported £103m in sales in its 20th anniversary year, up 46 per cent on the previous 12 months.

EBITDA reached £4.5m, an increase of 115 per cent on the previous year, and the workforce grew by 49, taking total employee numbers to 398 in February 2021.

Over the course of last year, Victoria Plum launched a bathroom design and installation service and also took the decision to prioritise flexible working. This has seen the company’s offices in Doncaster and Hessle transformed into co-working hubs where people can work and meet as required.

Victoria Plum was well placed to benefit from the speeding up of the structural shift towards online retail throughout 2020. Chief Financial Officer, Martin Hargreaves, who led the financing transaction, believes Victoria Plum will continue to grow at speed.

“We are very pleased to partner with Secure Trust Bank to agree this new growth funding package,” he said. “Our market fundamentals are strong, we have the necessary scalable infrastructure in place and a clearly differentiated design and installation service that is experiencing rapidly increasing demand.

“In addition, we continue to utilise the constant stream of valuable data and consumer insight to adapt our product offering to meet our customers’ needs. All of these factors combined mean we are ideally positioned to make Victoria Plum the most differentiated, most trusted and most respected bathroom provider.”

The £7m facility provided by Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, comprised of a £4m inventory facility and a £3m cash flow loan, will support Victoria Plum with continued expansion building on the momentum it has seen in the past year.

Secure Trust Bank has supported Endless in funding a number of its portfolio companies including provider of operated road sweepers, GoPlant Fleet Services, multi-channel garden furniture retailer, Moda Furnishings, and wholesaler of pet food and pet products, KennelPak.

In 2020, Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance provided more than £70m in funding to private equity-backed businesses, across six financial sponsors, and worked closely with each of them to ensure they could maintain and drive the maximum value from their investments. 

Commenting on the facility, Endless Partner, Matthew Jubb, said: “Since we acquired Victoria Plum, we’ve been executing an ambitious growth strategy, and we’re proud to see the progress that has been made in the past year.

“We’re confident that we will continue to grow at speed, but it was essential we found the right partner that could support us in achieving our ambitions for the business.

“Having worked with Secure Trust Bank on many previous occasions we knew they would be the ideal partner, as they take the time to understand our growth ambitions and create a bespoke flexible facility that works for us.”

John Gribbon, Regional Managing Director at Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, said: “Victoria Plum is a fantastic Yorkshire business with an impressive management team that is committed to customer service.

“Reflecting on the retailer’s expansion in the past 12 months, it is clear to see the real benefits since Endless came on board, and with a clear scalable infrastructure, there’s no doubt it will continue on this trajectory.

“We’re pleased to be building on our relationship with Endless and look forward to continue working with them to support Victoria Plum and other portfolio companies moving forward.”

Houzz has announced a collaboration with Dulux Trade to embed its colour portfolio in new visualisation tools within Houzz Pro, the all-in-one business management and marketing solution for residential construction and design professionals. As part of this engagement, Dulux Trade will provide paint colours for the Houzz Pro 3D Floor Planner and Mood Board tools.  

“Our Houzz Pro visualisation tools were developed to help design and construction professionals communicate their ideas and align with their clients on important project decisions early in the process,” said Alon Cohen, Houzz co-founder and president. “Colour helps homeowners to envision how a space will look and feel post-renovation and feel confident about moving forward with a project. We are excited to provide pros with a premium selection of paint colours through this collaboration with Dulux Trade.”  

“We are so pleased to be collaborating with Houzz Pro on their new visualisation tools,” said Karen Wilkinson, Dulux Trade Lead. “It’s so important for professionals to have every tool at their disposal to ensure a smooth design process for their clients, and colour selection is a key place where homeowners and professionals can really benefit from being able to visualise the end result. By embedding our extensive colour range, designers will be able to bring their customers along on the journey, and really bring their projects to life.” 

The Houzz Pro 3D Floor Planner allows pros to create accurate 3D interior schematics which can be presented in walkthrough or dollhouse views to give clients a realistic preview of the finished project. Pros can enter specific wall dimensions and ceiling heights, and resize windows, doors and furniture to match product selections. Floor finishes can also be customised to include a variety of tile, wood flooring and carpet options. 

Houzz Pro Mood Boards are now available for designers and other pros to showcase a project’s look and feel through products, colours and inspiration photos. Products can be uploaded from a computer or added through the Houzz Pro Product Clipper, which captures and stores product images and information from any website where pros source products. Pros can edit product images within each mood board, including removing backgrounds, layering products on top of each other, and presenting the room with a 3D perspective to offer a comprehensive look at the space. Floor plans made with the Houzz Pro 3D Floor Planner can be added to any mood board and will automatically update in the mood board when they are edited in the Floor Planner tool.

To address pros’ need for accurate colours in their 3D models and mood boards, Houzz Pro enables pros to choose from thousands of Dulux Trade colours to customise 3D model walls and place paint swatches in a mood board. Once a 3D floor plan or mood board is approved, the pro can easily click on the paint swatch to order the exact paint colour from the Dulux Trade website or a decorator merchant stockist nationwide. 

The 3D Floor Planner and Mood Board tools are completely integrated within Houzz Pro, making it the only platform that seamlessly addresses key business needs across the entire project lifecycle from marketing to management. Combining all of these tools in one place streamlines processes for designers, builders and other professionals, so they can grow and run a more efficient, profitable business from their office or on the go with the Houzz Pro app. Houzz Pro subscription packages, priced to fit any budget or team, also include premium profile features, website building services, and lead and business management tools. Free trials are available at houzz.co.uk/pro. 

Houzz has more than 2.5 million active home renovation and design professionals around the world in more than 65 categories, including architects, interior designers, builders and landscape professionals, on the platform. Watch a demo videos of the Houzz 3D Floor Planner tool here. Download images that depict the tools here.