British e-commerce giant The Hut Group (THG) has surpassed £1bn in sales for the year ended 31 December 2019.
The Manchester-based group reported a 24% boost in sales from 2018, to £1.14bn, while gross profit increased by more than 20% to £511m, compared with £417m the previous year.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation was also up by 22% to £111m.
But beauty was the driving force behind the sales boost.
In its annual report, THG reported its beauty division, which owns brands including ESPA, Christophe Robin and Illamasqua, was responsible for generating nearly half of its sales in 2019.
Earnings from its beauty portfolio reached 46%, while wellbeing created 36% of sales and technology 17%.
Meanwhile, the UK was the group’s best performing market (34%), ahead of Europe (26%) and Asia Pacific (24%).
The report read: “Our beauty and wellness divisions continued to strengthen their market-leading positions in 2019.
“Overall sales in our beauty division grew +34% year-on-year.
The group also named online beauty retailer Lookfantastic as one of the best performing brands of 2019.
“Lookfantastic experienced strong growth across all regions, with sales in the UK growing more than 52% year-on-year, as THG continued to gain market share from both online competitors and traditional retailers.”
Earlier this year, the group also revealed plans for its new distribution service.
THG Air is expected to launch in October and will operate two dedicated cargo planes for international distribution.
