THG Beauty, formerly known as The Hut Group, successfully bid $20 million for Biossance, the largest and most established Amyris brand, in a bankruptcy auction.
WHO: Biossance was incubated by Amyris and launched in 2016. it was the first brand based on the company's plant-based squalane, derived sustainably from sugarcane. The brand launched in Sephora in 2017 and has been the crown jewel of the Amyris consumer portfolio. The products are sold in over 1,600 stores globally, including Sephora, Harrods, Space NK, Douglas, and Selfridges, as well as online.
THG was founded in 2004 by Chief Executive Matthew Moulding and CFO John Gallemore, retails more than 8,000 brands, and operates more than 160 localized websites across 35 languages and 42 currencies. THG has become one of Europe’s largest online retailers of premium beauty brands. Other holdings include Cult Beauty, Eyeko, Illamasqua, ESPA, SkinStore, RY, Glossybox, Lookfantastic.com, Grow Gorgeous, Ameliorate, Acheson & Acheson, Christophe Robin, and Perricone MD.
WHY: Amyris filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August. The Biossance brand was auctioned off as part of the Amyris bankruptcy proceedings.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: THG Founder and CEO Matthew Moulding said on LinkedIn, "Usually, there’d be a queue of buyers for a brand like Biossance—a large, premium, clean chemistry brand, with sustainability at its core. Over 50% of sales are generated from Biossance’s own website, and it has a major US store agreement with Sephora. But buyer interest was minimal. The only other serious bidder was a US PE firm."
He continued, "Biossance should be immediately breakeven in THG. Our US and UK labs will support with manufacturing, and THG Ingenuity immediately brings both a new global website & distribution. Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty already sell $2m of Biossance products, which we can now accelerate."
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