MyWebGrocer to Be Acquired by Mi9 Retail
MyWebGrocer (MWG), a longtime digital solutions provider for grocers and CPGs, has agreed to be acquired by Mi9 Retail, a Miami-based provider of end-to-end software solutions for retailers, wholesalers and brands.
Prior to the agreement, Mi9's offerings served the apparel, hardline, department store, footwear, health and beauty, jewelry, luxury, specialty, and sporting goods channels. The addition of new grocery technology gives Mi9 Retail's suite entry into the supermarket channel, bolstering its existing offering with new ecommerce, order management, and click-and-collect functionality. Moreover, MWG's customers will benefit from the broader Mi9 suite of demand management, price and promotions management, and retail analytics solutions.
"Combining MWG with Mi9 will increase our ability to serve our customers with innovative technology, professional services and industry expertise," said Barry Clogan, president of retail solutions at MWG. "Our technology and media businesses complement the Mi9 platform and will operate more efficiently with the scale and business process expertise that Mi9 has put in place. This is a real win-win for our customers and employees."
MWG's existing sponsor, Palo Alto, Calif.-based private equity firm HGGC, will join Mi9 investors General Atlantic and Respida as investors in Mi9.
Earlier this year, Mi9 added a number of resources to its suite via the acquisition of JustEnough, which provided demand management solutions for retail, wholesale and direct-to-consumer businesses worldwide. The deal added planning, allocations and replenishment solutions to the Mi9 Retail platform of integrated, analytics-driven merchandising, store and digital commerce solutions.
MWG is one of the longer-standing digital solutions providers for the grocery business, offering its services since 1999. While it was an early provider of ecommerce solutions, other grocery ecommerce technology vendors have popped up since, and there have been a number of acquisitions in recent times. For instance, since last summer, grocery delivery service Instacart has acquired ecommerce technology provider Unata, and top grocers Target and Walmart have made their own purchases: the former bought delivery service Shipt and same-day-delivery startup Grand Junction, while the latter purchased same-day-delivery startup Parcel. The news of MWG's acquisition continues the trend of consolidation in the grocery technology space.
There's reason to believe that MWG was undergoing struggles of its own. Late last year, the grocery ecommerce company laid off 18 employees at its Winooski, Vt., headquarters in a move it referred to as "restructuring." MWG was also involved in lawsuits months earlier concerning a "phantom stock" plan intended to reward early employees who said they took pay cuts and worked long hours to help the company survive and ultimately succeed, USA Today reported last August.
