The Hut Group


The Hut Group is a British e-commerce company with headquarters in Manchester Airport, Manchester. It operates over 100 international websites selling Fast-moving consumer goods direct to consumer through its proprietary e-commerce platform. As of 2015, The Hut Group's sales have predominantly been outside the UK.
In 2017 The Hut Group was valued at more than £2.5bn making it one of the most valuable private companies in the United Kingdom, and one of the UK's only unicorns.

History

The Hut Group was founded in 2004 by Matthew Moulding and John Gallemore. Moulding launched the company with a £500,000 investment and a focus on entertainment products such as Music and Gaming.
The Hut Group originally created white-label websites for large physical retailers. These included ASDA, Argos Entertainment, Tesco and WHSmith.

Locations

The Hut Group's main headquarters are in Manchester Airport, Manchester. Part of the Northern Powerhouse, it is one of 20 tech British-based unicorns as of 2016.

Ownership

Its investors include Sir Terry Leahy, the former Tesco chief executive, and Lord Rose, the chairman of Ocado. In 2014, the company sold a 19.2% stake to KKR, while Balderton Capital, a technology investor, owns an identical stake. BlackRock, is also a shareholder and invested £138m in February 2016.
In May 2016, Sofina announced an undisclosed equity stake in The Hut Group.
In August 2017, Sky News reported that Old Mutual Global Investors had made their first private equity investment in The Hut Group.

Acquisitions

The Hut Group has pursued an acquisition strategy of mainly taking full ownership of E-Commerce businesses in a variety of retail sectors and putting the websites onto its proprietary technology platform. In 2016, the group made its first ever physical retail acquisition with the purchase of Hale Country Club & Spa.
AcquisitionYearCompany DescriptionRef.
Zavvi2009The Hut Group's first acquisition was of Zavvi, an online entertainment business that had gone into Administration in 2008.
IWOOT - I Want One of Those2010The Hut Group bought IWOOT from Findel Group as well as Confetti, a wedding accessories retailer.
Lookfantastic.com2010The Hut Group bought Lookfantastic group from the Crown family in November 2010. The business sells premium beauty skincare and haircare and operates beauty salons across the United Kingdom.
Mankind Direct2010The Hut Group bought Mankind Direct weeks after purchasing Lookfantastic Group. Mankind is a male-focused online grooming retailer. At the time, it reported £5M annual sales.
HQHair2011The Hut Group bought HQ Hair out of administration in 2011.
Myprotein2011The Hut Group bought Myprotein in 2011. The deal estimated at £60M at the time of the announcement.
Coggles2013The Hut Group picked up luxury fashion retailer Coggles from Administration. Originally a predominantly physical retailer based in York, it operated solely online until December 2017 when the company launched a new flagship store in Alderley Edge, Cheshire.
Active Nutrition International2014The Hut Group bought Finnish online sports nutrition retailer Active Nutrition International in 2014.
ProBikeKit2013The Hut Group acquires ProBikeKit.com in 2013
Preloved2014The Hut Group acquired online secondhand marketplace, Preloved from its founder Ian Buzer in 2014. The marketplace and community was started in 1998 and is one of the largest in the UK with over 6 million members.
SkinStore2016The Hut Group acquired US and Australian Beauty Retailer, SkinStore, from Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2016. The retailer is one of the leading online-only beauty retailers in USA and Australia.
IdealShape2016The Hut Group acquired IdealShape, a US-based dieting and nutrition brand based out of American Fork, Utah.
Hangar Seven2017The Hut Group acquired H7, a leading UK-based content producer focused on video and photographic content for the brand and retail industry. Hangar Seven had studios in London, Leeds, Macclesfield and in Portugal.
UK22017The Hut Group acquired UK2 Group, a web hosting firm with data centres around the world. UK2 was part-owned by LDC, the banking division of Lloyds Banking Group since 2011.
RY.com.au2017The Hut Group acquired RY.com.au, an Australian beauty online retailer. RY, which stands for 'Recreate Yourself', was established by James Patten and Brad Carr in 2005.
GLOSSYBOX2017The Hut Group acquired European provider of beauty box subscription services, GLOSSYBOX, from fellow investment companies Rocket Internet and Kinnevik Online.
ESPA2017The Hut Group acquired ESPA, which is based in the UK. ESPA has a presence in more than 700 spas in 60 countries.
Illamasqua2017The Hut Group acquired Illamasqua, a British make-up brand. Illamasqua was founded in 2006 by Julian Kynaston.
Language Connect2018The Hut Group acquired Language Connect, an online translation company. Language Connect was founded in 2003 by Ben and Iwona Taylor and has grown to become an international language services provider.
Christophe Robin2019The Hut Group acquired French haircare brand Christophe Robin, which was established in 1999, for approximately £50 million.
Eclectic Hotel Group2019In May 2019, it was announced that THG had acquired Eclectic Hotel Group, marking their second leisure property purchase since acquiring Hale Country Club and Spa in 2016. The purchase consisted of King Street Townhouse and Great John Street Hotel, both situated in Manchester, but not Didsbury House Hotel or Eleven Didsbury Park, which were hived out of Eclectic Hotel Group before completion.

Litigation

The Hut Group sued Oliver Cookson over the sale of Myprotein in 2011. Cookson was sued for £15 million, with The Hut Group claiming overestimation affected the valuation of the company when they bought it. Cookson counter sued for £12.7 million claiming a breach of warranty and fraudulent mis-representation. The matter went to the High Court in London in October 2014 and after a month-long trial judgement was given by William Blair in November 2014 giving Oliver Cookson an overall net result win of £6.5m in damages.
At the costs hearing in December 2014, the judge awarded a payment of just under £7.5 million to be made by The Hut Group to Cookson and the Trust in respect of all of the claims and counterclaims in the action and one third of the costs incurred by Mr Cookson and the Trust.
Oliver Cookson and the Trust appealed the court's decision to award The Hut Groups damages. The court of appeal dismissed the appeal on 22 March 2016.