Pumpkin Patch sold to Australian buyer

Pumpkin Patch has been sold to Australian eCommerce business Catch Group. Photo / File

Things aren't over for childrens' retailer Pumpkin Patch, with a buyer found and plans to relaunch.

Australian online retailer Catch Group has purchased the brand and its intellectual property, including its customer database, product designs and trademarks, for an amount understood to be about A$2 million ($2.17m) from receivers.

Catch Group, which touts itself as being one of the largest eCommerce sites in Australia, is reported to be designing a new Pumpkin Patch range that would be sold online in New Zealand and Australia from mid-year, as well as on some of the brand's other sites.

The Australian Financial Review reported Catch Group's chief executive Nati Harpaz was also considering launching flagship Pumpkin Patch stores in key locations.

"We will be relaunching this iconic brand with a wide variety of new and much-loved designs," Harpaz said.

"We also intend to invest in expanding product lines for mums, kids and babies," he said.

The retailer, which was founded in 1990, went into receivership in October last year owing around $76m.

Receivers from the firm KordaMentha had tried to sell the business as a going concern but had no option to liquidate after it received no serious expressions of interest.

At the time, a representative for the receivers Brendan Gibson said there was potential to sell the Pumpkin Patch name.

In an announcement today, Gibson said the sale was good news for fans of the brand.

"We are pleased to have been able to successfully complete a transaction that will see the Pumpkin Patch brand resurrected online in both New Zealand and Australia," Gibson said.

Since October, all 160 stores have closed with the company's roughly 1400 staff let go.

Catch Group have reportedly not acquired the brands remaining stock but have been working its former designer in the last few weeks to develop the new range.

Pumpkin Patch had online sales of about $30m before it collapsed in October.
The move has been done before with other legacy retailers, including most recently with electronics brand Dick Smith.

When the business went into administration last year, Australian online department store Kogan bought the brand and customer base for A$2.6m ($2.84m).

Kogan relaunched the business as an online-only business later in the year and in the first two months that it was operating, the brand made A$6.5m in sales.

While Dick Smith had an almost 50-year legacy, Pumpkin Patch which was founded in 1990, also has a lot of brand loyalty and history and the purchase of its name and intellectual property was still an option.