The Hut Group acquires US beauty retailer and two UK nutrition businesses
Health and beauty retailer The Hut Group has agreed to acquire US online skincare and beauty specialist Dermstore.com for $350 million from Target Corporation.
In a statement, The Hut Group said the acquisition will help it to increase the scale of its beauty box business through the addition of Dermstore’s customer base and accelerate sales growth within its own beauty brands.
Matthew Moulding, chairman and chief executive of The Hut Group, 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. 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.”
In addition, The Hut Group has acquired two of its longstanding UK based nutrition product suppliers, Claremont Ingredients and Berryman’s, for a combined purchase price of £59.5 million.
Claremont is a flavour manufacturing and development laboratory for sports nutrition and beverages while Berryman’s is one of the UK’s leading fruit-based ingredients specialists.
Moulding said: “These two businesses are 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.”
