304 is a streetwear brand established in Greater Manchester in 2012. The founders - three friends from university - named the brand after the apartment they shared whilst studying. It was in their kitchen where the brand’s first collection was produced, a small range of hand-printed tshirts. More than a decade on, 304 is known for its affordable, sustainable clothing featuring bold and playful designs. Having grown from an after-work hobby into a brand that works with ASOS and I Saw it First, it’s now working towards plans to grow 30% year-on-year for the next five years.
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304 is a streetwear brand established in Greater Manchester in 2012. The founders - three friends from university - named the brand after the apartment they shared whilst studying. It was in their kitchen where the brand’s first collection was produced, a small range of hand-printed tshirts. More than a decade on, 304 is known for its affordable, sustainable clothing featuring bold and playful designs. Having grown from an after-work hobby into a brand that works with ASOS and I Saw it First, it’s now working towards plans to grow 30% year-on-year for the next five years.
304 was spending 25% of its monthly revenue on marketing, mainly via Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads. This was paid for using a major US credit card, offering limited credit lines, inflexible payment terms, and standard interest rates.
With additional spend on inventory and day-to-day operations to consider, the brand never felt in a position to commit to its ambitious plans to scale the business. Stretching the marketing budget could have exposed 304 to cash flow problems. That was a gamble the owners were not prepared to take.
“To increase marketing spend to the level we need to scale the business has always felt too risky,” explains co-founder and director of operations Sean Cotter. “Our credit lines were inflexible so we had to be cautious about overspending and leaving ourselves short.”
With 304 having celebrated its 10th birthday, those behind the brand were ready to move away from the cautious approach and find credit options that would match their ambitions to scale the business dramatically by 2027. That’s how they found Juni.
Switching to Juni has given 304 access to the flexible credit it needs to support its growth, with the amount agreed easily covering all of its monthly ad spend. These funds can also be put to good use buying inventory and for any other spending.
"The flexibility to use credit on whatever we need, and the support from the Juni team to make it happen, has been superb. For what we need, Juni has been five-star,“ says Cotter.
With its new 60-day payment terms, 304 doesn’t need to put a penny of its revenue towards covering this month’s ad spend until a couple of months down the line. And when the bill is settled, 0% interest* means it has not cost any more than if it had been paid immediately.
It’s easy to see why the new financial setup has given 304 the confidence to follow their growth plans.
“That fear of all of the cash in the business being gobbled up by bigger ad spend has gone,” reveals Cotter. “We have more credit, more time, and more certainty. That’s the combination we need to be able to scale the business.”
Freed from the restrictive credit terms that have previously curbed its growth, 304 is now pressing ahead with its plans to achieve 30% growth year-on-year over the next five years.
And the story doesn’t end there. Now that 304 is using its credit to drive sales, it will become eligible for further increases to its Juni credit as its revenue increases. The brand has gone from a cycle of caution and cash flow concerns to self-propelling, scalable ecommerce financing.