Insatiable Hut Group snaps up three more brands for £318.5m including US skincare retailer Dermstore from Target
- Luxury label Perricone was also bought by The Hut Group three months ago
- THG hopes the new purchases will bring in another £150m in sales in FY2021
- THG recently upped its forecast for the second time in less than three months
E-commerce giant The Hut Group has expanded its portfolio once again after buying two nutrition product suppliers and an American skincare brand for more than £310million.
It has bought sports beverage firm Claremont and fruit supplier David Berryman’s for £59.5million along with Dermstore.com from retail corporation Target for £259million.
This comes almost exactly three months since the MyProtein owner purchased luxury label Perricone soon after it debuted on the London Stock Exchange in one of the largest initial public offerings (IPO) in years.
The Hut Group owns numerous beauty brands such as Glossybox and Christophe Robin
This morning’s announcement sent its shares 8.9 per cent higher in early trading to 762.6p. They have now appreciated 22 per cent in value since their shares started trading in September.
The Hut Group hopes the new acquisitions will bring in another £150million in sales during the 2021 financial year, though it stated that the Dermstore purchase is dependent on approval from US regulators.
It said buying the California-based firm will enable them to improve its relationship with major global beauty brands, enhance the scale of its beauty box business, and grow its American consumer demographic.
THG’s rapid growth in recent years has come through purchasing skincare and lifestyle products while also operating online platforms for other labels.
Among the brands it has snapped up include Illamasqua, subscription-based beauty box provider Glossybox, haircare product seller Christophe Robin, and Mio Skincare among others.
The company’s chairman and founder Matthew Moulding said: ‘A key driver behind the decision to list THG on the London Stock Exchange just over three months ago was to enable the Group to make major global investments, such as Dermstore.com.
The Hut Group chief executive Matthew Moulding (pictured with wife Jodie) took his company public in September in one of the biggest listings on the London Stock Exchange in years
‘Accessing capital through a London listing has enabled us to accelerate our growth plans and build out a global leadership position within the exciting beauty industry.’
Moulding started his technology business in 2004 with John Gallemore and initially focused on selling DVDs and CDs before branching out into lifestyle and luxury goods.
Following THG’s listing in the Autumn, the Burnley tarmac contractor’s son scored a massive payout worth an estimated £830million in what was the LSE’s largest-ever tech IPO and Europe’s biggest ever e-commerce listing.
He added that Claremont and Berryman’s were ‘highly complementary, with Berryman’s accelerating our capabilities in drinks range development for the individual brands within THG Nutrition.
‘Claremont will play a key role in developing flavours tailored to local tastes across the globe. Together these acquisitions will enable THG to significantly accelerate the launch of further product innovation to global markets, while increasing the proportion of THG Nutrition products wholly manufactured in-house.’
THG recently upped its forecast for the second time in less than three months and now believes its annual revenues for the current financial year will jump by 38 per cent to 40 per cent to between £1.57billion and £1.6billion.
The shopping holidays Black Friday, Singles Day and Cyber Week strongly boosted fourth-quarter sales, and the group revealed it had taken on another 3,000 employees to cope with the extra demand.
Its technology platform Ingenuity also announced direct to consumer partnerships with major firms including Microsoft, Warner Bros, and apparel retailer Jack Wills along with The Pokemon Company, two beauty brands, and Vita Coco.