Morrisons buys Kiddicare

BRADFORD-based Morrison Supermarkets has announced the acquisition of Kiddicare, the online retailer, for £70m.

The acquisition is the first step in developing Morrisons’ online business.

The company will continue to trade separately as kiddicare.com, and will be led by Scott and Elaine Weavers-Wright.

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Kiddicare, founded in 1974 by Neville and Marilyn Wright, is the UK’s leading specialist online retailer of baby products.

Turnover in the last full financial year was £37.5m and has grown by 75 per cent in the last three years.

More than 80 per cent of sales are now through the online channel.

The company owns a distribution facility and operates the largest baby nursery equipment retail store in Europe based in Peterborough, with 160,000 sq ft of warehouse, retail and office space.

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Morrisons intends to build its online non-food business, developing the kiddicare.com platform and management team, launching its first products in 2012.

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.

“We are delighted to welcome Scott and Elaine Weavers-Wright to Morrisons, along with their team. They are two of the most talented and respected operators of online retail today and their experience and track record with Kiddicare.com has been outstanding. Their knowledge and expertise will be invaluable as Morrisons builds its online business.”

Scott Weavers-Wright, the chief executive of kiddicare.com, said:

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“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 on-line 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.”

The acquisition is subject to certain conditions which, if not satisfied by 23 March 2011, would allow Morrisons to terminate the agreement.

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