THG to buy Cult Beauty for £275m

The Hut Group (THG) is acquiring UK-based online beauty retailer Cult Beauty for £275 million.

The British e-commerce company said that the buyout would boost sales by £140 million for the full next year and increase group sales growth by 38 to 41 per cent over the same period.

The company expects Cult Beauty to contribute sales of £60 million for the remainder of the year.

The digital retailer said that the acquisition would be highly complementary to its existing portfolio. The purchase will transfer 200 new brands, 1.7 million customers, and 1.6 million Instagram followers to the company.

"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,” said Matthew Moulding, executive chairman and chief executive of THG. "Cult Beauty's first-to-market reputation makes the brand an exciting fit for our THG Beauty division.”

Moulding added: “When retailing brands to consumers THG Beauty will run with two unique fascias within our main continents: THG will principally service customers within North America via our Dermstore and Lookfantastic brands, while in the UK, Europe, Asia and the Rest of the World the key brands will be Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty.”

The chief executive said that it anticipates fully migrating the company onto the THG Ingenuity platform by the end of the year.

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