? Baby products retailer marks first foray online
? Kiddicare will trade separately and management to stay on
Supermarket chain Wm Morrison has bought online baby products retailer Kiddicare for �70m, in its first foray into online retailing.
The UK's fourth-largest grocer has targeted non-food as an area of growth, but it is the online element of the Kiddicare deal that will attract attention.
Morrisons was only recently tipped as a possible buyer of Ocado, given its lack of online presence, although analysts suggested the rumoured deal was far-fetched.
Kiddicare owns a state-of-the-art distribution centre and an online sales platform, both of which will enable Morrisons to move into digital retail, the company said.
Dalton Philips, the chief executive of Morrisons, said: "This acquisition brings not only a respected, successful and fast-growing specialist retailer into the Morrisons group but also a robust, scalable and highly advanced technology platform around which we can begin to build our e-commerce offer."
Family-run Kiddicare was founded in 1974 by Neville and Marilyn Wright, and is now run by their daughter, Elaine Weavers-Wright and her husband Scott. The pair will stay with the business and kiddicare.com will trade separately, Morrisons said.
Kiddicare's turnover in 2010 was �37.5m and has grown by 75% in the past three years, Morrisons said. Over 80% of its sales are online. It owns a store in Peterborough, where it has 160,000 sq ft of warehouse, retail and office space.
Kiddicare has around 40,000 customers a month and employs 130 people.
Chief executive Scott Weavers-Wright said: "Elaine and I are extremely excited about partnering with Morrisons to accelerate the pace of future growth at kiddicare.com and look forward to working with the Morrisons team to develop their online offer. There are fantastic synergies between the two businesses and our platform will allow both brands to enjoy future success and to continue to deliver an unrivalled customer experience."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/15/morrisons-buys-kiddicare-seventy-million
Darren Bent Noel Coward Mark Zuckerberg Christmas and New Year Student politics Guantánamo Bay
No comments:
Post a Comment