E-commerce giant The Hut Group's revenue surged to more than £1.6bn during its latest financial year in what has been called a "milestone" period for the firm, which also saw it rack up losses of more than £500m.
The Manchester-headquartered giant is one of the world's largest beauty and wellbeing businesses and last year raised £1.88bn in a huge 海角视频 flotation as it began trading on the London Stock Exchange. It was valued at £6.8bn at the end of 2020.
The group has now filed its first full-year accounts since the float, revealing that its revenue increased from £1.140bn to £1.613bn in the 12 months to December 31, 2020.
Revenue for its beauty division increased from £478.3m to £751.6m while nutrition went from £412.9m to £562.3m.
THG Ingenuity's revenue rose to £137.3m to £127.9m while THG OnDemand saw an increase from £59.9m to £101.3m.
The group's adjusted EBITDA also surged from £111.5m to £150.8m but its pre-tax losses widened from £45.1m to £534.6m
The Hut Group also confirmed that revenue for its first quarter, the three months to the end of March 2021, saw a 58.2% increase in revenue.
It added that its ingenuity division "has been a highlight" with 187.9% growth in the quarter, up from 160.4% in 2020 and 144% in the fourth quarter of 2020.
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The group's operating losses of £481.8m were driven by a £331.6m non-cash share based payments charge, a £105.1m non-cash impact of the impairment on assets held for sale and sale and lease back charges as well as £14.3m in IPO fees and £39.2m in Covid costs.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, the group said that a this stage of the year the upgraded revenue and margin guidance given on January 12 2021 remain unchanged at +30% to +35% revenue growth at stable adjusted EBITDA margins.
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Founder, executive chairman and chief executive Matthew Moulding said: "We approach FY21 with confidence having navigated successfully through a milestone year in the group's history.
"I am particularly proud of how our people have responded to the changing environment, displaying determination to make a difference across all aspects of our operations from new product development, to digital marketing, M&A, fulfilment and THG (eco).
"Our global D2C brand building capabilities and proprietary Ingenuity technology platform has enabled us to further develop both our external brand relationships, and our expanding portfolio of beauty and nutrition own brands.
"Leveraging the platform to build an impressive client base of blue-chip consumer brands has been a highlight of the year, supported by encouraging momentum in the current year ingenuity commerce pipeline.
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"Management's purpose for the IPO was to step change THG's access to funding in order to capitalise on Covid-19 accelerated market changes.
"As we progressed through 2020, those changes became more apparent in terms of the volume and scale of opportunities available to the group, as evidenced by the c. £400m committed to acquisitions since IPO, most notably the acquisition of Dermstore in the US.
"After highlighting our commitment to reducing the environmental impact of group operations with the launch of THG (eco) in 2020, we have announced significant investment to support the group's strategy to off-set existing usage and footprint.
"Plastics are a real and immediate problem for THG's operational sites, our consumers, and for Ingenuity partners.
"We are investing in best-in-class plastic recycling operations that at first help us off-set our plastic footprint, but in time enable us to close the loop and re-use the plastic we process within THG directly.
"We have delivered exceptionally well on our commitments at IPO and we move forward with purpose, to advance our strategy with investment in talent, infrastructure, THG (eco) and targeted M&A, and to continue to deliver growth on a global scale."
The Hut Group is one of Greater Manchester’s five unicorns - privately owned tech start-ups with a valuation over $1bn - which also includes Boohoo Group, Autotrader, AO.com and Onthebeach.com.
It sells its own-brand and third-party products covering health and beauty, fashion, accessories and sport across 160 websites in 35 languages including Hut.com.
Founded in 2004 by Matthew Moulding and John Gallemore with a £500,000 investment it was initially a white label e-commerce provider before acquiring and building brands of its own.
It has developed a scalable direct-to-consumer retail model under its THG Ingenuity platform. It works with partner brands including Neal's Yard, Nestle and PZ Cussons to host and deliver their ecommerce operations who benefit from The Hut Group's reach and infrastructure.
The group is also set to shortly open its ICON studios close to its Manchester head office which will house 2,000 people.
The Hut Group also confirmed a move made by Mr Moulding ahead of the IPO in September that he is to donate £100m of shares to charity.
Ahead of the share transfer, he and his wife hold 319.3 million shares in THG (25% of the group) on a fully diluted basis.
It is anticipated that they will hold c.305 million shares (c. 24% of the group) on a fully diluted basis after the transfer.