The Hut Group, the recently floated online retail company run by billionaire Matthew Moulding, has upgraded its profit forecasts after strong sales at its beauty and sports nutrition brands during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Manchester-based company which floated on the London Stock Exchange in September, said sales rose 51% to £558.7m during its fourth quarter, beating previous expectations of an increase of between 40% and 45%.
The Hut Group (THG), which runs the websites Lookfantastic, Glossybox and Zavvi as well as beauty brands such as Espa and Illamasqua and the sports nutrition company Myprotein, said sales had benefited from strong demand for beauty products including self-tanning kits, vitamin tablets, Myvegan supplements and hand sanitiser during the Covid-19 pandemic.
As a result, THG said it was expecting 2021 revenues to be 30% to 35% ahead of last year’s, up from its previous estimate of 20% to 25%.
Matthew Moulding, the co-founder who serves as executive chairman and chief executive, told analysts and investors that the “key standout was the beauty division”.
He said the company had hired 3,000 people, largely within the UK, taking its global workforce to 10,000, and opened five new warehouses across the world. Black Friday had been strong, he said, and the firm’s websites typically got 20 times their usual orders in a day.
The Hut Group made a strong stock market debut in mid-September, when its shares rose by a quarter to 625p. After the success o ..
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