{"id":297714,"date":"2026-02-23T06:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/297714\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T06:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:33:09","slug":"mighty-ape-revenue-falls-25-as-kogan-pushes-insurance-expansion-announces-new-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/297714\/","title":{"rendered":"Mighty Ape revenue falls 25% as Kogan pushes insurance expansion, announces new head"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kogan founder and chief executive Ruslan Kogan said in its ASX statement that the company\u2019s consistent focus on delivering value was driving significant momentum across the business.<\/p>\n

However, the same could not be said for Mighty Ape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made good progress at Mighty Ape, undertaking a deliberate operational and inventory reset to position the business to replicate the Kogan.com strategy and consistently deliver market-leading value to our customers in New Zealand,\u201d Kogan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m encouraged by the early signs of recovery as we implement the One Group Strategy, and excited about progressively returning Mighty Ape to a position of strength over the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

The One Group Strategy integrates Mighty Ape\u2019s team with Kogan\u2019s to centralise inventory procurement, align warehousing, marketing and operating processes to drive efficiency.<\/p>\n

Inventory management has been a key issue for successive leaders of Mighty Ape. Previous managing director Robert McEwan reduced the company\u2019s inventory by 32% over the reporting period.<\/p>\n

That corresponds to the inventory value dropping from A$20.8m to A$14.2m.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s operating costs as a percentage of revenue also reduced over the half, falling from 36.4% to 29.9%.<\/p>\n

Despite these improvements, the company\u2019s first trading update on the second half hasn\u2019t provided improved results.<\/p>\n

For the month of January 2026, Mighty Ape\u2019s gross sales fell 13.3% compared to the prior corresponding period to A$8.3m, while revenue fell 32.2% to A$5.5m.<\/p>\n

\"GrantGrant Henry, general manager of Mighty Ape, is the fourth leader in three years to take the reigns of the troubled marketplace.<\/p>\n

New leader<\/p>\n

Mighty Ape has also welcomed its latest general manager in Grant Henry, who replaced the outgoing McEwan in December 2025.<\/p>\n

Henry is now the fourth manager\/chief executive of Mighty Ape in just three years.<\/p>\n

Henry has extensive retail experience after working with EB Games for 25 years, most recently as the New Zealand arm\u2019s general manager for the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

EB Games announced it would shut down its New Zealand business<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

Now as head of Mighty Ape, Henry will oversee the company\u2019s continued strategic reset and greater integration with parent Kogan.<\/p>\n

Henry said the retail landscape was wide and varied, but believed there was room for new verticals as well as the company\u2019s traditional offering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in the retail landscape now for over 15 years delivering those well-known facets of retail. Retail needs to evolve and we need to grow with our consumers, and we understand that there\u2019s enough room for other products to come in and for us to do well with those products,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done very well with the verticals to date and we\u2019re looking to extend that further and move forward with that. I think there\u2019s a happy medium to be struck with continuing to sell the things that we\u2019re renowned for and then offering new products, and we\u2019re endeavouring to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said as part of the wider Kogan group the company would benefit from greater purchasing power for new products and ranges, especially now that its inventory refresh had progressed.<\/p>\n

Insurance push<\/p>\n

One new initiative Henry will oversee straight away is the launch of new car and pet insurance additions, joining Mighty Ape\u2019s travel insurance offering.<\/p>\n

The additions are provided through New Zealand-based insurance provider Cove and underwritten by Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company, offering comprehensive cover for accidents and unexpected vet bills.<\/p>\n

Kogan chief partnership officer Ron Gelberg said Mighty Ape had experienced 100% year-on-year growth across its existing offerings, including Mighty Mobile and Travel Insurance.<\/p>\n

He hinted that coverage for home insurance and contents insurance could happen within the year, and that further expansion could be on the cards for its existing travel insurance policies.<\/p>\n

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kogan founder and chief executive Ruslan Kogan said in its ASX statement that the company\u2019s consistent focus on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17311,694,30033,665,806,138,49063,38402,13689,15248,15218,3232,106,17053,163988,163987,13489,30032,117,111,139,69,1642,18661,163989,15267,659,7493,666,1120,1529,664,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-297714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-17311","9":"tag-announces","10":"tag-ape","11":"tag-around","12":"tag-as","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-companys","15":"tag-drop","16":"tag-expansion","17":"tag-falls","18":"tag-firsthalf","19":"tag-fourth","20":"tag-head","21":"tag-insurance","22":"tag-kiwifounded","23":"tag-kogan","24":"tag-leader","25":"tag-mighty","26":"tag-new","27":"tag-new-zealand","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-online","31":"tag-pushes","32":"tag-reins","33":"tag-reported","34":"tag-retailer","35":"tag-revenue","36":"tag-struggling","37":"tag-takes","38":"tag-three","39":"tag-turn","40":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}