Issues with inventory levels, due to a “missed peak sales season” were denoted as “in progress”, with a warning they would impact margins in the first half of FY2026.
Kogan bought Mighty Ape, based in Silverdale north of Auckland, for A$122m in 2020. The site’s founder, Simon Barton, and his immediate team stayed on until 2023.
The disastrous glitches that resulted in Mighty Ape swinging from its usual Christmas-quarter profit spike to a loss occurred after a “replatforming” to Kogan’s systems.
Holiday season revenue plunged 22.1% to A$30m.
The write-down was first announced in an August 18 ASX filing.
Kogan said the “one-off, non-cash impairment” was based on “longer than anticipated recovery from the platform challenges following the October website upgrade … compounded by the recent challenging retail environment in New Zealand, marked by weak consumer confidence”.
The bad news was expected and founder and chief executive Ruslan Kogan said underlying numbers were positive.
Kogan shares were up 1.24% to A$4.08 in early trading. The stock is down 15.9% for the year.
Excluding the Mighty Ape impairment, the firm made an adjusted net profit of A$14.9m versus its year-ago A$21m net loss.
“We delivered growth across all major revenue streams, expanded the Kogan community, and strengthened our balance sheet through disciplined execution,” Ruslan Kogan said.
“While Mighty Ape faced challenges during the year, including the impact of its platform migration and tough trading conditions in New Zealand, we have taken the prudent step of resetting the business. With these foundations now in place, we are confident Mighty Ape is on the path to recovery and long-term success.”
Within the Kogan Group, Australian site Kogan.com’s gross sales increased from A$661.2m in FY2024 to A$793.9m in FY2025, while Mighty Ape’s gross revenue fell from A$147.7m to A$137.0m over the same period.
Kogan.com adjusted ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increased from A$32.6m to A$36.9m while Mighty Ape’s adjusted operating earnings swung from a A$7.4m profit to a A$0.1m loss.
DHL veteran Rob McEwan was recently named Mighty Ape’s new managing director.
McEwan told the Herald in June that, notwithstanding the serious issues with implementation, the upgrade had added many features from Kogan that would benefit customers and make the site more efficient, and that the new Marketplace feature let small retailers reach Mighty Ape’s large-scale audience.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
