New Zealand-based childrenswear retailer Pumpkin Patch has joined forces with leading global online retailer Amazon to tackle new markets.
The agreement, inked this week, will see the two companies work together to have Pumpkin Patch product sold via Amazon’s websites in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
The tie-up also follows a recent announcement by Pumpkin Patch that it will shut-down its retail network in the United Kingdom, due to plummeting sales.
As reported on ragtrader.com.au in January, the retailer, which also operates 185 retail stores across Australasia, recently finalised a review of its UK retail operations, run by a stand alone UK registered subsidiary company, and decided its UK retail network was no longer profitable.
At the time, Pumpkin Patch Group CEO Neil Cowie confirmed “some or all of the UK stores will be closed”, but said the brand would be ramping up its existing UK online activities to continue supplying Pumpkin Patch product to its local customer base.
Commenting on the Amazon partnership this week, Cowie said being able to combine the company's design and supply chain capabilities with Amazon's huge market presence represented a unique opportunity and was a marker of international growth opportunities that still exist for Pumpkin Patch.
“These types of relationships are an important part of our international multi-channel growth strategy as they allow us to enter markets that would be hard to enter on our own, with France and Germany being good examples of that. In addition they leverage off our existing design, supply chain, and other support functions so the capital investment we have to make to establish the relationship is minimal,” he said.
“While we don’t expect to see noticeable earnings from the Amazon relationship until the 2014 financial year, it is strategically an important step for us. We are well on the way to developing a truly global multi-channel business model for our brands, following a mix of ‘bricks and mortar’, online, and franchise/wholesale strategies in markets around the world. This new relationship is another example of the flexibility we have in our business model to meet the needs of our customers and partners across very diverse international markets.
“Our aim is to design childrenswear that customers love and trust all around the world and the relationship with Amazon will allow us to reach a huge number of new customers in three very large European markets. The Amazon relationship is a good example of the exciting international opportunities that exist for us, that will generate long term benefits for our shareholders”