News UK today announced the acquisition of Handpicked Companies Limited, owner of The Handpicked Collection (www.handpickedcollection.com) – a flourishing online retailer with a carefully selected range of expertly sourced products.

The multi-award-winning website - including winner of the 2013 Online ‘gift’ Retailer of The Year - sets itself apart from the crowd of e-retailers with its unique panel of expert journalists and trendsetters who select and recommend new high quality products for The Handpicked Collection’s discerning customers.

The Handpicked Collection will continue to target its existing consumer markets but the acquisition means that its offers will reach an even wider audience as it is promoted through The Times and The Sunday Times to the loyal and trusting readers of these renowned titles. Research from TGI shows that 2.7 million of the titles’ readers bought online in the past six months and over a fifth of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times make non-grocery purchases online at least once a week.[Note1]

News UK titles have traditionally driven performance of retail businesses and are now looking to own the retail relationship with their readers in order to join the growing media-tailing trend. The company believes the Handpicked brand will enable the titles to do just that, and will also develop solutions for wider audiences as it seeks to maximise the opportunity.

The online shopping market continues to boom with double digit annual growth and the popularity of e-commerce is expected to soar over the coming year, with £107 billion forecast to be spent online in 2014. [Note2]

Mike Darcey, CEO of News UK, said:

“World class journalism will always be at the heart of the News UK offering, but as part of our business development strategy we are eager to seek out opportunities to deliver added value to our loyal readers. The quality of the goods offered by The Handpicked Collection are a natural fit for the audiences of The Times and The Sunday Times and this acquisition will enable us to build ever deeper relationships with them.”

Will Miller, CEO of The Handpicked Collection, said:

“Our team is delighted to have the opportunity to develop new and innovative retail propositions with the News UK team. The possibilities are vast, and backed by the UK’s leading national newspapers we believe this opens up an incredibly exciting evolution in the e-commerce marketplace. The team have worked extremely hard, bringing together their diverse expertise and creativity to build the company up from the simple idea it was in 2007, to what it is today.”