Kogan.com CEO Ruslan Kogan wanted to buy Catch

Kogan.com boss Ruslan Kogan would have bought rival Catch if given the chance, rather than see it shut down by Wesfarmers.

Kogan.com CEO Ruslan Kogan. Picture : Julian Kingma

Kogan.com boss Ruslan Kogan believes he could have turned rival Catch Group around within months if he had been given the chance to buy the online retailer before its demise.

However, for now he will be content with grabbing as many Catch shoppers as he can as they look for a new online bazaar, with Kogan.com also ramping up its marketing spend to harness the momentum it is seeing in its business to grow customer numbers and cement its return to profitability.

“There’s no doubt that them shutting down in April, we will have a huge amount of sales for the market to compete for, and we are very well positioned to win a lot of that,” Mr Kogan told The Australian as Kogan.com cemented its return to profitability since 2024 with an interim net profit of $10.33m for 2025, up 19 per cent.

Perth-based conglomerate Wesfarmers bought Catch for $230m in 2019, but the division has generated a flood of losses with the company recently announcing the Catch business would be wound down, leaving Wesfarmers with total losses and impairments of almost $500m on the deal.

Kogan.com and Catch were both opened within months of each other in 2006, and Mr Kogan said he had much respect for the founders, Gabby and Hezi Leibovich, with the entrepreneur hoping he could have had a chance to buy Catch from Wesfarmers rather than be shut down.

“We were actually even so confident that we would have loved the opportunity to buy the business to salvage some of the value from it … we could turn that business profitable within a matter of months – and it’s not surprising that they (Wesfarmers) didn’t want that.”

Kogan.com, which had its own financial hiccups after the Covid-19 pandemic that saw it trigger a string of losses and a falling share price, is now back into the red for the December half posted a lift in half-year sales by 9.9 per cent to $272.73m, with the company declaring an interim dividend of 7.5c per share, flat on last year, and payable on April 30.

“Having returned the company to profitability in fiscal 2024, I’m pleased to report today that we have built on that momentum and returned the business to strong sales growth in the first half of 2025,” said Mr Kogan.

“This was achieved through disciplined execution, operational efficiencies, and strategic initiatives that we expect will continue to drive sustainable growth into the future. As our customers continue to navigate the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, we are committed to easing the burden by offering market-leading prices on the most in-demand products and essential services.”

Mr Kogan believes through the half Kogan.com took market share from traditional retailers, especially in the categories of white goods, TVs and appliances which is the strongest area of Kogan.com’s business. Kogan.com active customers grew 15.7 per cent to 2.345 million over the first half.

He said the average product purchase by its customers is more than $170, which is above the traditional basket size of between $30 and $50 for other online retailers and marketplaces.

Kogan.com has also invested heavily in its struggling New Zealand business, Mighty Ape, with that division a drag on overall profitability but Mr Kogan confident of better returns from that business as its restructure showed positive results.

In January, group gross sales were up nearly 25 per cent to $80.4m, but adjusted earnings dropped 38 per cent to $3m.