The Hut Group to buy Cult Beauty, will retain its "clear identity"

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Aug 4, 2021

Fast-expanding British e-commerce giant The Hut Group said Wednesday that it’s to buy UK-based beauty e-tailer Cult Beauty for £275 million ($382.91 million).

It said Cult Beauty's portfolio of "emerging and independent third-party brands is a compelling addition for THG Beauty.” It’s set to add around £60 million in sales this year and £140 million of net sales to the wider business by next year.

The brands Cult sells operate across skincare, haircare and cosmetics, including Charlotte Tilbury, Drunk Elephant and Huda Beauty. And there’s little risk of cannibalising THG’s existing business as around two-thirds of the brands are not currently listed on existing THG Beauty sites, “representing an opportunity to broaden consumer choice globally”. Due to its “distinguished brand portfolio”, Cult Beauty will “retain a very clear identity within THG Beauty”, the company said.

THG, which listed last year, also raised sales growth guidance for 2021 to between 38% and 41% on a currency-adjusted basis. That beat its previous guidance of 30% to 35%.

It also said it was making "good progress" on its Ingenuity collab deal with SB Management, a subsidiary of Japanese venture capital giant SoftBank.

THG earlier said its tech arm, THG Ingenuity, will be spun off into a separate company within the next 15 months. That also gives SoftBank an option to invest $1.6 billion in the spun-off unit for a 19.9% stake. And it seems the separation plan is ahead of schedule.