Long-running online deals website Catch will soon be shut down after losing more than $350 million in the past three and a half years.
Owner Wesfarmers, which also runs Kmart, Target, Bunnings and Officeworks, announced the closure this morning as it looks to cut costs.
The site will stop selling products on April 30.
Catch was one of Australia’s earliest successful online retailers, having been founded in 2006 as Catch of the Day by brothers Hezi and Gabby Leibovich.
From its initial five staff, it grew into a business with hundreds of employees and was bought by Wesfarmers in 2019 for $230 million in cash.
Not long after, analysts JP Morgan valued the company at more than $1 billion, but it has proved to be a consistent loss-maker for Wesfarmers.
The retailer made losses of $88 million in 2022, $163 million in 2023 and …