Morrisons buys Kiddicare in multi-million pound deal

Morrisons has bought baby goods website Kiddicare for
£70 million.



Morrisons has made its first move into the online non-food business following the purchase of Kiddicare for £70 million.

Morrisons said it would use Kiddicare's technology platform to develop its own non-food business, and plans to launch its first products in 2012.

Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips 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."

Kiddicare, which was founded in 1974, has more than 40,000 customers a month, and employs about 130 people.

Its turnover was £37.5m last year, with 80% of its sales made online. The company will continue to trade separately as kiddicare.com.