He had plenty of other milestones to celebrate, too, including becoming a billionaire thanks to THG’s initial public offering in 2020.
The stock fell 78% from its January high after the company failed to convince shareholders that it wasn’t just an e-commerce firm, but also a high-tech software platform.
THG is now trading well below its IPO level, and is considering options including selling its prize assets — the beauty and nutrition units that bring in the lion’s share of revenue — according to people familiar with internal discussions, who asked not to be named as the talks are private.
No decision has been made on whether to go ahead with any sale, the people said.
By the end of 2019, headcount would double, to 7,000, and sales would pass $1 billion for the first time.
Staff worked long hours but enjoyed plenty of celebrations, according to over a dozen interviews with current and former employees.
They moved into personal care with the acquisition of Lookfantastic in 2010, followed by Myprotein in 2011, just as social media supercharged Britain’s interest in glamour and wellness.
By 2014, THG was recording revenue of 244 million pounds and producing glossy annual reports with dramatic taglines, such as: “If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.” Key international investors KKR & Co.
THG’s growth was built around doing deals and expanding its beauty business, which now boasts a portfolio including e-commerce site Cult Beauty and subscription-box service Glossybox.
Over the same period as it expanded through acquisitions, THG posted cumulative losses of about 550 million pounds, with revenues of 5.4 billion pounds, according to an analysis of company filings.
People who built and use the platform call it variously an unrivaled digital service, a hodge-podge of bolted-together acquisitions, or a combination of the two.
In its 2017 annual report, THG said the deal gave it 29 global data centers “situated in strategic locations.” In fact, UK2 Group only owned two data centers: one in Canning Town, London, and another in Logan, Salt Lake City, according to people familiar with the deal, who declined to comment on the record because the information was private.
As THG invested, Ingenuity attracted the attention of one of the world’s largest tech investors.
Before it began internal discussions over a potential sell-off of its beauty unit, THG publicly discussed spinning it off in an IPO in 2022 and suggested that its nutrition business could follow too, leaving Ingenuity as a standalone operation.
In an interview with GQ magazine in November, Moulding said the time since the firm went public in September 2020 had been “the worst period ever” and that, with hindsight, he wouldn’t have gone ahead with the offering.
“There are scenarios where if you’re not an individual leading a big company, then I think the U.K.