Langham keen to kick off auction website

Published on Sunday 19 July 2009 21:00

HIBS director Bruce Langham has secured the majority of the seven-figure funding he needs to launch an online auction site for independent retailers.

The site, biduhappy.com, is the latest project for Langham – who previously headed aviation and cable TV companies as well as working as chief executive of Fulham Athletic and Aston Villa football clubs.

Edinburgh-based Biduhappy. com aims to target independent retailers that do not have an online presence – and match them up with potential customers looking for a particular product.

The retailers are then sent an alert and can "bid" for the customer's business – offering their best price, or incentive deal. Langham said: "It is a very simple concept. When I first heard about it, my question was 'Why has no-one else thought of that?'"

The site, the brainchild of banking, retail and property entrepreneur Murray Dundas, has been a work in progress for two years – with Langham joining the business about a year ago.

More than half of the seven- figure funding needed for a nationwide launch of the website has been secured from individual business angels – mostly based in London – while Langham is in discussions with other potential backers. He is confident that all of the cash will be in place in time for the UK launch, which will involve a major marketing campaign. Dundas funded the initial construction of the website, which was carried out by a Latvian firm.

The appointment of a chief executive and an operations director is expected to be announced soon at the company, which currently employs 20 people. Langham, who was previously chief executive of airline British Caledonian and launched cable TV in Scotland with United Artists, plans to roll out the site across the UK by the end of the year. About 50 retailers have signed up for the "beta" site – which is due to be trialed in Scotland within two months. Langham said: "I think the recession is going to be beneficial to us: customers are looking for a good deal at the moment, so I think we are launching at exactly the right time."

Taking a 5-7 per cent commission of every item sold through the website, Langham expects the business to be profitable by the end of its second year of trading.

And the firm plans to expand the product range on offer. "The business will be cash-generative from day one," claimed Langham. "The site is completely scalable. Currently, we are planning to offer mainly electrical goods such as kitchen appliances, but it could be expanded to almost anything.

"It will grow exponentially – even items such as cars could be sold this way eventually."