Ruslan Kogan says his company “reached out to Wesfarmers multiple times to try and acquire and rescue Catch”, but that “they chose to shut it down”.
Wesfarmers announced three days ago that it would cut its losses and kill the Catch e-commerce business, which launched 19 years ago.
“It’s bittersweet to hear that Wesfarmers is shutting down Catch,” Kogan wrote on LinkedIn.
Kogan website with back to school deals, Friday January 24, 2025.
“On one hand, we both launched in 2006 and they have been our closest competitor with the biggest overlap for nearly two decades. On the other, it’s sad to see the end of an iconic and loved Australian brand that helped pioneer Aussie eCommerce.
“We reached out to Wesfarmers multiple times to try and acquire and rescue Catch which would have been a better outcome for all stakeholders – we know how to make an eCommerce business like that thrive in a sustainable way. It’s a shame they chose to shut it down.”
In an update to the ASX Wesfarmers said that Catch’s e-commerce fulfilment centres would be transferred to Kmart Group, while some of the digital capabilities developed in Catch would be handed to Wesfarmers’ retail divisions.
In response to Kogan’s post, CEO of Harris Technology, Garrison Huang, suggested that Wesfarmers didn’t want to sell because it “considers Kogan a competitor to their businesses (Kmart, Target, Officeworks and Bunnings, etc.)”.
Huang said Catch’s database was not something Wesfarmers would want to part with, and that Catch has “two very expensive robotic distribution centres that they can use for Kmart instead of giving them to a competitor”.
To which Kogan replied: “We wouldn’t want the distribution centres, stock, robotics, tech, systems, etc – happy for them to hold onto this. We’d be happy to pay up for the domain, trademark, etc.”
In response to a comment that “surely [Wesfarmers] would have been open to a deal rather than killing the brand entirely?”, Kogan responded: “You’d think so.”
Wesfarmers expects to record one-off costs associated with the closure of between $50 million and $60 million.
Catch accumulated an operating loss before tax of between $38 million and $40 million for the half-year ended December 31, 2024.
