Online shopping company Shoply has acquired homewares e-tailer Your Home Depot for $2.85 million as part of a string of e-commerce acquisitions it has made recently.
The ASX-listed business acquired electrical goods site Eljo.com.au in 2013, adding to its portfolio of sites including ohki.com.au and office technology site ezydirect.com.au.
The Your Home Depot business generated $12.9 million in revenue in the 2012-13 financial year, and comes with a customer database of 130,000 people.
The deal includes a multi-purpose warehouse and retail lease in Castle Hill, NSW, as well as stock on hand to the value of $1.5 million.
Shoply forecasts Your Home Depot will generate EBITDA of approximately $1.2 million for the 12 months from completion of the sale.
Shoply chief executive officer Simon Crean told SmartCompany the acquisition was part of a multi-faceted growth strategy for the company.
“It is a great next step for us,” he says.
“It will bring us four-fold revenue growth on the top line of the business. It is a great way for us to expand our market category reach – we are already in electrical and entertainment, and homewares is a supermarket to be in.”
Crean says the plan is to consolidate the technical operations of the site into the Shoply stable, but in general to keep it operating in a business as usual manner. He expects existing Your Home Depot staff will be retained.
He says the business will focus on marketing the brand, building scale, increasing the user experience and growing revenue.
Crean says Shoply has more acquisitions in its sights, both in existing product sectors and in other product categories.
As one of the few ASX-listed online retail businesses, Crean says he knows the company is closely observed by the market, but he feels “no extra pressure”.
“It (being listed) enables us to access capital for these expansions…it is a great opportunity for people to invest in online stock…they otherwise have to look to the US,” he says.
Your Home Depot offers high-end kitchenware, homewares and electrical appliances at yourhomedepot.com.au. Brands on the site include KitchenAid, Scanpan, Magimix and Bamix.
The sale transaction is expected to be completed no later than April 11, 2014.
Melinda is a business writer and editor and helps companies to bring their brand stories to life through her small business, Oliver Content. Melinda was previously the content manager for KPMG Australia, an editor of SmartCompany, and spent many years as a journalist.
