Hut Group spends £318m on new acquisitions

The company, which floated on the London Stock Exchange in September, on Tuesday said it had bought Dermstore.com, an online skincare retailer, from the US retail chain Target for $350m (£259m).

THG owns brands including Glossybox and MyProtein and has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy in recent years by snapping up skincare and lifestyle brands while also operating online platforms for other products.

It also splashed out another £59.5m on two UK-based nutrition suppliers, Claremont Ingredients and David Berryman.

THG said it hoped Dermstore would help to enhance its relationships with key global beauty brands, adding that expected to grow its beauty box business through the US outfit's customer base and marketing presence.

Claremont Ingredients operates an independent flavour manufacturing and development laboratory for sports nutrition and beverages, while the David Berryman business supplies and develops fruit-based ingredients.

The group said its deals to buy Claremont and David Berryman will help improve its product innovation among its sports nutrition portfolio while continuing to secure revenue from third party customers.

Antitrust clearance is expected to be received in late January 2021, THG said in a statement. Dermstore.com was therefore expected to contribute for 11 months of THG's 2021 financial year, adding around $180m in sales (£135m) and adjusted core earnings $4m (c. £3m).

"Through delivery of planned synergies, management anticipate adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margins to increase and move in-line with group adjusted EBITDA margins within 18 to 24 months' post acquisition," TGH said.

The acquisitions of Claremont & Berryman's are expected to add sales of £15m and adjusted EBITDA of £4m in fiscal 2021, the company added.