Hut Group sales surge again in Q4, adds more beauty deals to Ingenuity offer

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 12, 2021

The Hut Group continued to outperform in the fourth quarter with the company saying on Tuesday that it saw revenue growth of 51% year-on-year, much better than the range of 40% to 45% that it had predicted earlier.

Group revenue growth also accelerated in Q4 vs Q3, “with an especially strong performance in THG Beauty and increasing momentum in Ingenuity Commerce contract wins”. As a result, it has raised its FY21 revenue growth guidance to an increase between 30% and 35%.

THG Beauty revenue grew 66.2% year-on-year in Q4 to £298.2 million. It had grown 45% in Q3, adding up to a 55.4% second-half rise and a 57.1% leap for the full year.

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THG Ingenuity revenue meanwhile rose 34.7% in Q4, a massive leap compared to the 0.6% growth in H1 and 7.2% full-year rise.

With other business streams added in, it meant Q4 total group sales rose to £558.7 million and for the full year, sales were up 41.4% to £1.612 billion.

The company said it added over 3.5 million new active customers during Q4 alone, with over 10.7 million added during the full year.

Also encouraging was that it reached 2.6 million app users by the period end, compared to less than 0.1 million at the end of 2019, “providing a powerful new channel in which to engage with consumers”.

And the company on Tuesday piled on even more good news around THG Ingenuity with more new contract wins. Its new business pipeline conversion continued at pace throughout 2020. While new project implementations tend to be phased to avoid the peak trading period, the growth rate for Ingenuity Commerce revenue of 144% in Q4 was impressive.

And it has added a number of new names to the Ingenuity line-up, signing deals with Galderma, Creed and L’Occitane Group’s Erborian.

Global dermatology company Galderma has partnered with THG Ingenuity to launch its Acnecide D2C UK website. The end-to-end contract will include trading, marketing, logistics, customer services and payment solutions.

Fragrance brand Creed has agreed a deal to fully internationalise its digital brand presence across Europe and the UAE, including personalisation.

And skincare brand Erborian is launching a D2C localised site via THG Ingenuity in Spain, with scope to enter additional international markets and expand its global reach.