Revolution Beauty unveils new boss after tumultuous year

Shares in Revolution Beauty Group tanked on Thursday after the cosmetics company announced its results from a year of "upheaval" and appointed a former Walgreens executive as its new boss.

The company, which has been embroiled in a bitter disagreement with shareholders (including 26.6% owner Boohoo) after some bizarre boardroom moves following an independent investigation into financial dealings, has now completely restructured its board.

Lauren Brindley will join as its new chief executive on 18 September, replacing Bob Holt, who leaves the business immediately. Brindley was most recently the group vice-president for Beauty & Personal Care at US pharmacy giant Walgreens, and prior to that held senior roles at Boots.

The company now has seven non-executive directors.

"The board remains committed to upholding the highest levels of corporate governance. The board acknowledges that in some areas this was not historically the case, and has taken significant measures to address these historic and complex matters which were the subject of an independent investigation," Revolution said in a statement on Thursday.

Shares in the company - which were suspended from trade in September 2022 - were restored to AIM in late-June 2023 following an audit and the release of its interim results. However, Boohoo had been asking for a change in leadership after the majority of shareholders voted to fire three directors at an AGM – chief executive Bob Holt, CFO Elizabeth Lake and chairman Derek Zissman – only for the board to rehire them almost immediately.

While Lake is to remain as finance boss, Holt and Zissman resigned from the board last month, though Holt had stayed on as interim CEO until a successor had been found.

Revolution's results on Thursday showed that full-year revenues for the year to 28 February rose 3% to £187.8m, while the loss before tax narrowed to £33.9m from £45.9m.

The company said trading since the start of its new financial year has been ahead of expectations with first-quarter sales up 60% as previously announced due to a weak comparative the year before.

The stock, which had initially jumped in morning trade to a yearly high of 39.5p, was down 17% before the close at 28.6p.