Dragon breathes fire into art world

From the archive, first published Tuesday 22nd Nov 2005.

Rachel Elnaugh, the television panellist whose Red Letter Days empire went into administration earlier this year, has taken charge at Easyart.com

Ms Elnaugh, who stars on BBC2's Dragons' Den, is now chief executive at the online art and framing retailer which is part-based in Uckfield, East Sussex.

The 40-year-old has bought a 20 per cent stake in the business and replaces Easyart founder Simon Matthews, who will now work for the company as an advisor.

She has already snapped up rival art portal Worldgallery.co.uk and has set her sights on floating the business on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

Easyart.com supplies lithographic and digital prints of the world's most famous and popular paintings for the home and business markets.

It has more than 50,000 images available for UK and European customers through its online service and also provides an in-house bespoke framing service.

Ms Elnaugh's previous venture, Red Letter Days, the gift experiences company she founded in 1989, went into administration in August this year and was subsequently bought by her fellow Dragons' Den panellists Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis.

She said: "After my departure from Red Letter Days I received many offers and opportunities but I was determined to take some time out from business life.

"However, art is one of my great passions, and when a City contact alerted me to the Easyart.com opportunity, I was inspired by the challenge of taking the company to AIM.

"Easyart.com is a natural fit with my experience and the company is currently at a stage I found myself in several years ago - on the verge of massive growth as market leader in a sector with no serious competition.

"The retail market is hugely challenging for British businesses at present but like any good Dragon, I am determined to breath new fire into the Easyart.com brand and help realise its enormous potential."

Mr Matthews, formerly a London art dealer whose family founded the Arthur Tooth & Sons gallery, launched Easyart.com in September 1999.

In May 2003 he won a highly publicised court battle with Stelios Haji-Ioannou's Easygroup over the right to use the "easy" prefix on the Easyart.com company name.

Easyart.Com's operations are split between an office headquarters in London and the in-house framing and manufacturing division in Blackboys near Uckfield.

This year it is expected to sell in excess of 50,000 art prints and posters and 25,000 framed pictures, with an expected turnover of £1.3 million and profits of £50,000.

The company web site receives more hits than the National Gallery and comes second to the Tate as the most visited art site in the UK.

Mr Matthews said: "Rachel is a true entrepreneur with a proven expertise in building a company and taking it through the process of rapid expansion we require.

"The widely reported sale of her company saw Rachel experience business failure for the first time in her life. But Red Letter Days' loss is our gain.

"There are few entrepreneurs who do not experience problems in their business life, and with those problems come knowledge for the future."

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

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