Ecommerce company The Hut Group (THG) is looking to add more than £140m of extra sales to next year’s bottom line with the purchase of online beauty retailer Cult Beauty.
The move adds to the company’s growing roster of health and beauty providers and follows Febrary’s acquisition of the leading pureplay online beauty retailer Dermastore for $350m.
Matthew Moulding, executive chairman and chief executive of THG, comments: “Cult Beauty is frequently the partner of choice for emerging indie brands due to its personalised, content-led approach and enthusiastic consumer base who are continually seeking new, innovative solutions to complement their beauty routines. Cult Beauty’s first-to-market reputation makes the brand an exciting fit for our THG Beauty division.”
Moulding adds: “We anticipate fully migrating Cult Beauty on to the THG Ingenuity platform by the end of the year and within the first six months of acquisition, giving the brand access to the global digital features to underpin significant future growth.”
He also says that THG saw a “compelling opportunity” to grow Cult Beauty internationally, with less than half of its sales currently from outside the UK.
According to analysts, the acquisition of Cult could boost THG sales in the next full year by £140m, increasingly earnings by around £10m. THG was valued at more than £5bn in a mammoth stock market float last year and has now raised its guidance by around £50m to sales of £2.23bn for the current full year, representing 38% growth compared with a previous forecast of 35%.
