Comet is back from the dead today, 14 years after its collapse, as the entrepreneur behind its revival promises to bring back the excitement that made it a high street favourite.
Entrepreneur Cas Paton, 42, has bought the iconic brand, which went into liquidation in 2012, and is relaunching it as an online electrical marketplace.
The new Comet [https://www.comet.co.uk/] will offer more than one million products from 2,500 sellers, from TVs and washing machines to mobiles, computers and the latest gadgets.
Cas remembers as a boy, visiting its Trafford Park store in Manchester with his late dad Nigel and being blown away by the technology on display.
The dad-of-four said: “I remember being a very young boy and going into Comet and just being so excited by the potential of all this new technology.
“Whether it was the TVs or the electronics, these were things you aspired to own. It’s that excitement of going into the store that I don’t think has ever really been recreated.”
And Cas is determined to make the new Comet feel like the one people remember.
He has brought back its famous black and orange branding, rejecting a later rebrand which he believes lost some of the connection with customers.
He said: “It was non-negotiable that we went live with the brand everyone actually remembered. Comet is a brand that has such a positive impression on so many people.
“The era it comes from, where you would walk through the doors and see all the technology you may not have seen before or couldn’t afford, that feeling has gone today. We’re all so exposed to products in a completely different way.
“We wanted to try and bring that nostalgia of the brand and the history and the way it makes people feel into an online marketplace so that people know they’re coming to a specialist online.
“While we’re not going to give people the same in-store feeling that we once had, at least customers know when they go to Comet it’s a site that really caters only for those products. You won’t find furniture or clothing.”
Founded in 1933, Comet became one of Britain’s best-known electrical retailers before collapsing in 2012.
The new Comet will be online-only, but Cas is exploring click-and-collect partnerships which could even put the Comet name back on the high street once more.
“I want Comet to be able to connect to stores again,” he said. “We’re exploring a few options that might put Comet’s name back on a few buildings.”
Cas believes there is room for a specialist electrical marketplace alongside the online giants and is relishing bringing “some competition back to the market” but unlike some competitors, Comet will not sell its own stock.
He said: “Every sale that’s made on Comet is a sale for another retailer.
“We’re a friend of the retailers. We’re here to attract customers, build trust and give customers choice.”
Cas has already invested £10million in the launch and he believes Comet could eventually become a business worth between £250 million and £500 million.
Cas’s entrepreneurial streak started early. At just 14, while still at school and doing a paper round, he was earning £500 a time showing shop owners how they could increase profits by ditching outdated price-sticker guns.
He later joined the Royal Navy before studying law at Bournemouth University. But university life alone proved too slow after the Navy.
He said: “I decided to set up my first company online which cost me £79.99. It was the best £79.99 I ever spent!”
By his third year at university, he had 27 staff and his businesses eventually moved into technology and e-commerce, leading to online marketplace OnBuy.
Cas poured up to £600,000 into the technology, shut down his other businesses and even sold the house he planned to move into.
He said: “I basically went from being a relatively high-performing income person to completely broke to get OnBuy off the ground.
“It was like going all-in on a poker game.”
Progress was slow for 18 months but then things took off.
Cas said: “It was £100,000 a month and then 18 months later it was £1million a month, and 18 months later it was £10million a month.”
Plenty of people told him it would never work and one venture capital firm told him in 2017 they would be surprised if OnBuy ever reached £1 million in annual sales.
Years later, the same person messaged him to say they couldn’t believe they had passed on the opportunity.
The business is worth £250 million today.
On his office wall at the family home in Manchester is a picture of a shoal of fish swimming in one direction, with a single fish heading the other way.
The caption reads: “What if everyone else is wrong?”
Cas said: “I really like the idea that you can see something you can do that other people maybe don’t see.
“Bringing Comet back to life and bringing it into a new world of glory is exactly that.”
He also believes there could hardly be a better time for its return.
“The market is really tough. Money is really tight,” he said.
“But people still need a kettle. They still need a toaster. They still want a TV.
“If we can help people save money by bringing better choice from a reputable, long-standing brand that has nostalgia and trust, I think it’s a great win.”
Despite his success, Cas says he is still driven by the same excitement he felt staring at gadgets he couldn’t afford as a boy.
And what would that boy, who started out with £80 building websites, make of owning one of Britain's most recognisable retail names?
Cas laughs: “Probably that we could be doing more!”
