musicMagpie's deal with US supermarket giant Walmart has sent its shares soaring after investors and analysts reacted positively.
The Stockport-headquartered company announced that its US brand, decluttr, will offer refurbished disc media through Walmart's website. Refurbished consumer technology products are set to follow in the coming weeks.
Following the news, shares in musicMagpie increased by 15% to their highest levels since August 2022.
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Co-founder and chief executive Steve Oliver said: "We're thrilled to announce that we are teaming up with the biggest retailer in the world, which will allow us to offer our suite of refurbished and pre-owned products to its tens of millions of customers.
"Walmart's mission to provide high quality items at low prices aligns with our own, and the newly launched Walmart Restored programme mirrors our commitment to the circular economy and sustainability.
"This is an exciting new sales channel for us as we continue to grow our decluttr brand in the US and partnering with such an iconic household name will continue to foster trust not only in decluttr, but also in refurbished products as a category."
The deal comes after musicMagpie launched a similar deal with Asda in September 2021. Walmart still owns 15% of the UK supermarket chain, which was acquired by the Lancashire-based billionaire Issa brothers.
In December, musicMagpie said that it "remains confident" in the face of a "challenging consumer environment and growing cost pressures" after achieving record Black Friday sales.
At the time, the company said that following "cautious consumer behaviour" over the summer and early autumn, November saw increased activity that ended in record sales during the Black Friday week.
After musicMagpie announced the Walmart deal this morning, analysts from the likes of Shore Capital and Peel Hunt welcomed the news.
Shore Capital said: "We believe MMAG’s board is alive to the tough realities of the wider UK & US consumer economic outlook, but it is likely that the group’s flexible and more affordable solution to high-demand products, along with its impressive environmental credentials, is an appealing solution to many consumers.
"We are pleased to see today’s news, and although our numbers remain unchanged at this stage, we look forward to seeing how the partnership develops."
Peel Hunt added: "This is a great opportunity for the decluttr brand in the US, and should help the 25% of revenue that came from the US in 1H22.
"But this is very early days for the Restored initiative, and decluttr will be one of many sellers on Walmart.com.
"Overall, we are pleased for this new deal but it isn’t known what impact it will have, hence we make no changes to estimates today.
"Nevertheless, having multiple marketplace channels (eBay, Amazon, BackMarket, Walmart) means it can manage promos, fees, stock availability, etc. daily/weekly to ensure it sees the the best returns, alongside its own webstore."
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