Europe’s fastest growing online Health & Beauty retailer, The Hut Group, has announced record-breaking sales on Black Friday, with sales doubling last year’s record haul, with 95% growth.
The owner of leading global online retail sites and brands such as Myprotein, lookfantastic, and Skinstore and IdealShape has revealed record Group sales on Black Friday, from its global headquarters in Northwich, Cheshire.
To accommodate the immense growth, the Group heavily invested in its Technology and Logistics platform through 2016, with:
- the launch of its £120m, 1 million square foot Manufacturing and Distribution Centre in Cheshire, UK
- the launch of its 250,000 square foot Distribution Centre in Kentucky, USA
- creation of 1,000 new jobs in Cheshire, UK, including 400 new graduate roles, taking the Group’s headcount to 3,000 people
- the launch of 60 new localised language websites across the globe to capitalize on international demand
The Hut Group’s sales continue to grow rapidly internationally, with Black Friday customers outside the UK representing over 66% of sales compared with 48% last year. The group saw a 56% increase in New Customers versus last year.
The Hut Group saw more than 3 million unique visitors to its websites in 24 hours, selling over 3,000 items per minute in peak hours. All of the Group’s 120 websites reported 100% global availability throughout the day.
Across its Beauty websites such as lookfantastic, the Group sold 19,000 kilos of shampoo and conditioner on Black Friday alone, which is enough to power 1.9 million showers. Myprotein sold 1.5 pouches of protein per second in the 24 hour period and the equivalent protein found in 350,000 steaks.
Top selling brands and products across the Group included:
- Foreo Luna
- Playstation 4 Slim
- Subscription boxes LFBeautyBox and ZBOX
- Caudalie
- NARS
- Illamasqua
- Glamglow
- T3
- Christophe Robin
- Myprotein’s Impact Whey
- ghd IV Styler
- IdealShape’s IdealShake & IdealLean protein shakes
The Hut Group celebrated the start of the event with a selection of its key brand ambassadors, who helped to pack up the first Black Friday orders in the newly built Omega Warehouse in Warrington on Friday. The list of ambassadors included Louise Thompson from Made in Chelsea, model Chloe Lloyd, plus fitness athletes The West Twins, Kirk Miller and Abby Pell.
Black Friday’s success this year was assisted by the group’s investment in the US market with recent acquisitions Skinstore, IdealShape and IdealFit, which saw US sales soar over 250% year-on-year as well as continued growth in Europe and Asia of above 120% and 160% respectively.
CEO and Founder, Matthew Moulding said:
“I’m pleased to report a successful Black Friday, delivering 95% growth in Sales compared to Black Friday last year. This performance was underpinned by both the operational execution of our people and the quality of our operating platform in delivering a first class customer experience across the globe.
We’ve invested £230m this year to deliver a step change across our infrastructure, launching two brand new purpose built Manufacturing and Distribution Centres (UK & USA), and significant expansion of our HQ campus in Cheshire, as we created over 1,000 new jobs in the year.
We are well placed for 2017 and plan to make similar substantial infrastructure investments over the next 12 months, which should support future growth and significant new job creation.”
For more information please contact Viki Tahmasebi – viki.tahmasebi@thg.com
Notes to Editors
The Hut Group team & Ambassadors do the #MannequinChallenge on Black Friday: https://twitter.com/thehutgroup/status/802126082199748608
About The Hut Group
THG is a nimble giant with a start-up culture, led by our founder Matthew Moulding and backed by global heavyweight investors KKR, Blackrock, Sofina and Balderton Capital.
Built on a foundation of industry-leading technology, a world-class team and a scientific approach to building global brands, The Hut Group are fast becoming the world’s most influential online retail organisation.
Part of the Northern Powerhouse near Manchester, we operate over 100 high-profit websites that sell premium, non-perishable FMCG direct to consumer to the fast-growing, global Health & Beauty markets via our in-house technology and operating platform.