The Hut Group (THG) today reported fast third-quarter growth both in its own online sales – and in those it manages for third-party brands. Now it is looking ahead to Black Friday and the fourth quarter of its year – which usually accounts for between 30% and 32% of sales.
THG Holdings today said that turnover from direct-to-consumer sales reached £320.2m, up by 51.3%, in the quarter to September 30 on the same time last year, while revenue from the Ingenuity Commerce services it runs for brands from Nestlé Health Sciences to Nintendo rose fast from a low base, by 171.4% to £5.1m. Overall, THG Holdings’ group revenue grew by 38.6% to £378.1m year-on-year.
Focusing on THG’s direct-to-consumer sales, its lifestyle brands (+79.6%) saw the fastest growth, followed by beauty (+45%) and nutrition (+42.8%), although beauty remains its largest category, with sales of £157.5m in the latest quarter – and lifestyle (£24.4m) remaining one of its smaller categories. THG’s beauty brands include Lookfantastic, Mankind and Glossybox, while Myprotein leads its nutrition group, and its lifestyle brands include Coggles, Zavvi, and I Want One of Those. Lookfantastic and Myprotein are both Top250 retailers in RXUK Top500 research.
So far in its current financial year, the group has made sales of £1.05bn – 36.8% up on the same time last year. That includes £893m (+49%) from direct-to-consumer sales, and £12m (+171.5%) of sales made via its Ingenuity Commerce business. Looking ahead, the company now expects full-year revenues to come in between £1.48n and £1.52bn – between 30% and 33% ahead of the previous year. Black Friday is a key date in THG’s calendar, with sales for the fourth quarter usually accounting for between 30% and 32% of sales every year.
During the third quarter, THG launched three new warehouses in the US, UK and Singapore to take its total to 17 warehouses and fulfilment sites on four continents. All use THG’s own Voyager warehouse management system.
It has innovated with a new Foundation Finder which helps customers find the right colour of make-up as they move from buying on the high street to buying online, and it has launched its own customer services social platform Omniverse, integrated into Facebook, which is designed to speed up customer engagement.
Matthew Moulding, chief executive and executive chairman of THG, said: “I am pleased to report a strong period of trading in our first quarterly update as a public company, including an upgrade to revenue growth guidance for 2020.”
He added: “Our strong organic revenue growth across all divisions, numerous THG Ingenuity partnership deals and the recent acquisition of luxury skincare brand Perricone MD demonstrates our strategic direction and progress in the period.”
The group added three new appointments to its audit and risk, and sustainability committees.
