Target Buys Marina del Rey Cooking Company

Target on Thursday announced that it is buying Marina del Rey-based Cooking.com to expand the retail giant’s presence in the cooking and kitchen market.

The company also announced the purchase of CHEFS Catalog, and the two recently acquired businesses will be combined but maintain their current names. 

“We are excited to bring CHEFS and Cooking.com into the Target family,” Casey Carl, president of Multichannel and senior vice president, Enterprise Strategy, Target, said in a statement. “We know consumers are increasingly looking online for cooking solutions to make their lives easier – from utensils and cookware, to recipes. These strategic transactions provide us a great way to address this growing opportunity and will offer expanded online options for our guests.”

The president and executive of CHEFS, Tim Littleton, will become president of the new wholly owned subsidiary and Tracy Randall, chief executive and co-founder of Cooking.com, will become a a consultant to Target.

“We’re delighted to be a part of the Target organization,” Littleton said in a statement.  “CHEFS has grown and thrived online by offering a well-edited selection of leading kitchen tools, gadgets and accessories. Combined with Cooking.com and their strong Powered By partnerships, their vast array of recipes and user-driven product ratings and reviews, we believe we’re well-positioned to provide an even richer online experience for our collective customers.”

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed and both transactions are expected to close within 30 days.