‘We’re proud of the part we’ve played in their story’: Wesfarmers to close Catch, agency partners speak out
Wesfarmers is set to close operations of online retailer Catch.com.au later this year, due to an “increase in competitive intensity” in the e-commerce sector.
Wesfarmers – which also owns Kmart and Bunnings, and more – announced the closure on Tuesday via an announcement to the ASX. By the fourth quarter of the 2025 financial year, Catch will stop trading as a standalone business, with its e-commerce fulfilment centres due to be transferred to Kmart Group.
Wesfarmers’ managing director, Rob Scott, said the decision was in the best interests of shareholders and would better leverage the assets and capabilities developed within Catch.
He said increased competition in the Australian landscape from e-commerce sites including Temu and Amazon has “affected Catch’s financial performance and growth prospects”, making it a challenging environment.
“In this environment, the group’s retail and health businesses, with their leading omnichannel offerings and trusted brands, are better positioned to respond as the market and customer expectations evolve,” Scott explained.
“These businesses are supported by extensive store networks, leading e-commerce platforms, the group’s shared data asset and complementary loyalty and membership programs, including OnePass. Together, these elements provide the opportunity to cost-effectively scale the group’s customer propositions, helping create shareholder value.
“We thank the Catch team for their hard work improving the operating performance of the business and building valuable capabilities for the group. Where possible, opportunities for redeployment within the group will be offered to affected team members.”
Catch was serviced by a number of Australia’s leading agencies, including Sparro by Brainlabs for digital, Match & Wood for media, Sunday Gravy for PR, and Ortolan for creative.
Executive partner at Sparro by Brainlabs, Morris Byrant, said in a statement to Mumbrella: “Catch has been a killer client for us as a business and as a team. They’re fantastic, hard-working people who have placed their trust in us for over 8 years — it was disappointing to hear that the standalone business is being wound down.
“Some of Sparro’s best and brightest currently do and previously have worked on the account. Some of our best under-wraps data and advanced media work happens for Catch. Together, we’ve delivered genuinely ground-breaking work that’s driven hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
“We genuinely would not have some of the most advanced tools and automation — complex, privacy-focused customer lifetime value models, as well as unique-in-market automated bidding systems — without the opportunity to use Catch’s immense product and sales database as a testing ground. These tools drive incredible ROI and benefit all of our clients; driving billions of dollars in revenue every year,” Bryant continued.
“Our work with Catch is seriously some of the best work in the industry and I wish we could talk about it in more detail. We’re proud to have done it with the Catch team and wish them all the best for the future.”
In a statement to Mumbrella, Ortolan’s director, Chloe Quigley, said: “We are really sad to hear about Catch ceasing business. We love working with such an irreverent, quirky and iconic Australian brand but mostly we really love and respect the Catch team.
“Ortolan has really enjoyed our partnership and will miss their vision. It is such a shame for Australian retail.”
Match & Wood and Sunday Gravy declined to comment.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the agency beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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