Catch has reported a loss of $108 million for the first half of the financial year, including restructuring costs of $33 million relating to inventory provisions, redundancies and asset write-offs.
The Wesfarmers-owned online marketplace saw gross transaction value decline by 26.8 per cent during the period.
Wesfarmers managing director Rob Scott said the result, for the half-year ended December 31 2022, was due to internal and external factors.
“The disappointing financial performance in Catch reflected operational and execution challenges in addition to the broader decline in online retail demand during the period.
“Catch’s earnings were impacted by significantly lower margin in the in-stock business due to increased clearance activity, as well as higher fulfilment and delivery costs associated with layout and process inefficiencies during commissioning of the new Moorebank fulfilment centre in New South Wales."
Catch has appointed a number of senior leaders in a turnaround strategy, including former Cotton On Group eCommerce head Brendan Sweeney in October 2022.
"Restructuring activities to reduce overhead costs were commenced in December 2022 and additional commercial controls on range and inventory management have been implemented," Scott confirmed.
Wesfarmers acquired Catch Group for $230 million in 2019.