Indie beauty brand partner acquired by Lookfantastic owner in £275m deal

A health and beauty e-commerce specialist has announced that it is acquiring a London group in a deal worth £275m.

The Hut Group (THG), which owns more than 100 international websites including lookfantastic.com, has reported today that it is acquiring Cult Beauty, based in London.

The acquisition of Cult Beauty adds around 200 third party brands to THG’s portfolio, including Benefit, ghd and Victoria Beckham Beauty.

The deal sees THG acquire Cult Beauty from private shareholders for £275m, with the business expected to contribute sales of approximately £60m across the rest of the year.

Matthew Moulding, executive chairman and CEO of THG, commented: “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.

“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.

“We anticipate fully migrating Cult Beauty onto the THG Ingenuity platform by the end of the year (within the first six months of acquisition), giving the brand access to the global digital features to underpin significant future growth.”

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