Part214 Sep 2023 20:50
“Sure, we always knew Beauty wouldn’t be as strong as Nutrition in H1. Sales were down 10% to £539m, delivering £11m of EBITDA. But anyone who makes the effort to read the numbers will understand why we’re super pleased with the division.
Within our Beauty division, we have a manufacturing business, split across the US & UK, which develops & manufactures products for many of the world’s largest beauty brands. Ordinarily this is a very profitable business, making £11m in H1 2022 - we're actually very good at it! But since H2 last year, many of these household brands asked to delay manufacturing orders as they looked to reduce excess stock in the global market.
These delayed orders reduced profits in our manufacturing arm to just £1m in H1 this year, a £10m reduction YoY. But this destocking program has now ended, and in H2 manufacturing volumes and profit levels are back to normal.
Aside from manufacturing, the rest of the Beauty division made H1 2023 profits of £10m, up 32% on H1 2022. Strong growth in our 2 largest own brands, Perricone MD and ESPA International, were real stand outs, while our Cult Beauty retail platform performed particularly well.
What's better is that the whole Beauty division has returned to Sales growth in H2, compared to -10% in H1. Add so THG Beauty is well set for a strong second half to 2023.”