News M&A watch
Home Retail acquires
Habitat brand On 24th June, Home Retail Group, the parent company of Argos and Homebase, acquired the rights to the Habitat brand in the UK and Ireland. In addition, Home Retail bought the UK Habitat website and three London stores for a total consideration of £24.5 million. The rest of Habitat’s 30 stores have been put into administration, with the potential loss of hundreds of jobs.
The Hut takes
Myprotein The Hut Group, which last year bought beauty and grooming products websites Lookfantastic and Mankind, has added to its health and beauty roster with the acquisition of
MyProtein.com on 1st June. The Manchester-based sports nutrition company currently operates in the UK and five other European countries including Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. It has a projected turnover for 2011 of £25 million, up from £16 million last year. With the addition of MyProtein, The Hut will now achieve 40 percent of sales from outside of the UK.
a roundup of notable deals Jones adds Kurt
Geiger to portfolio On 2nd June, shoe retailer Kurt Geiger was acquired by the Jones Group, a designer, marketer and wholesaler of apparel and accessories, for $350 million (£215 million). Neil Clifford will continue as chief executive officer at the helm of the Kurt Geiger management team. Rebecca Farrar Hockley remains buying and creative director and Dale Christilaw continues as finance director.
HMV divests Waterstone’s and
Canadian business Entertainment products retailer HMV Group sold its bookstore chain Waterstone’s to a fund controlled by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut for £53 million on 20th May. Mamut already owns 6.7 percent of HMV Group. In the year to 24th April 2010, Waterstone’s made a trading profit of £2.8 million against turnover of £514 million. On 27th June, HMV confirmed the sale of its Canadian business to turnaround specialist Hilco UK for £2 million. HMV has had a presence in Canada since 1986, and currently operates 121 stores and the
HMV.ca website.
Client wins
Kaleidoscope, the Freemans Grattan Holdings-owned catalogue, appointed Guava as its search marketing partner to provide it with SEO services.
Towels R Us, a b-to-b and b-to-c direct seller of towels, bathrobes and bedding, selected the MetaCommerce platform to drive its online growth.
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The Duvet and Pillow Warehouse chose 2Touch to provide it with marketing and fulfilment services.
Direct Commerce Catalogue e-business
www.catalog-biz.com
Ann Summers is using software from RichRelevance to personalise customer recommendations on its website. Using the recommendation engine, Ann Summers will be able to use the data gathered on web visitors to present them with products or categories that match their online behaviour patterns.
Multichannel retailer Past Times has selected MNP to provide it with a back-end direct commerce platform and warehousing requirements.
Apparel retailer Republic, a £225 million company that operates 115 stores in the UK and Ireland as well as an online shop, is adding more strings to its multichannel bow. The retailer has launched a new click and collect initiative allowing customers to shop online and pick the item up in-store. Republic is extending its Torex retail technology together with its ecommerce services provider Venda to coordinate activity across all sales channels to provide a unified order, fulfilment and delivery service. The click and collect
service was launched on 21st June across the UK after a successful trial in two stores. Online customers can select the Republic store of their choice as the delivery address with the purchase available
for collection three days later. Customers are alerted by text when the parcel is ready for collection. Earlier in the month,
Republic launched a mobile website developed by Venda in partnership with m-commerce specialist Digby. The mobile site allows customers to search, browse and buy products from the entire Republic range. Customers are also able to view ratings and reviews and share products with their connections on Facebook, Twitter and email. Eric Abensur, Venda’s
group chief executive, says the Republic site is the first Venda client to go live with a Digby-powered Venda mobile platform. He expects 10 or more similar announcements from Venda’s clients in the next quarter.
Republic invests in cross-channel
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