The Hut Group
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| Private | |
| Industry | Retail & Technology |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | Northwich, Cheshire, United Kingdom |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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| Products | Various |
| Revenue | £334 million (2015) |
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Number of employees
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1000+ |
| Divisions | Retail & Technology Services |
| Website | www |
The Hut Group is a British e-commerce company with headquarters in Northwich, Cheshire. Operating over 100 international websites that sell premium Fast-moving consumer goods ("FMCG") direct to consumer in the Health and Beauty markets through its proprietary technology and operating platform.
The company is led by founder and CEO Matthew Moulding, chaired by Richard Pennycook and backed by investors KKR, BlackRock, Sofina and Balderton Capital as well as senior retailers Sir Terry Leahy and Lord Rose.
The Hut Group regards itself as Europe's fastest growing Health and Beauty online retailer. As of 2015, The Hut Group's sales have predominantly been outside of the UK.
The Hut Group was founded in 2004 by Matthew Moulding and John Gallemore, when Matthew bought a CD online at a price much cheaper than in store and realised the disruptive potential of online retail. Matthew launched the company with a £500,000 investment and a focus on entertainment products such as Music and Gaming.
In order to build up revenues and profitability, The Hut Group used its proprietary technology platform as a whitelabel solution for large physical retailers who wanted to go online. This included ASDA, Argos Entertainment, Tesco and WHSmith.
The Hut Group's main headquarters is in Gadbrook Park, Cheshire. Part of the Northern Powerhouse, it is one of 20 tech British-based Unicorns as of 2016.
The Hut Group is noted for its unorthodox talent model based on the accelerated promotion of young graduates into leadership positions very early on in their career. These include the promotion of a Physics graduate to become a divisional CEO aged 26 and the hiring of a top Computer Science graduate from Cambridge.
Other unorthodox approaches include its high prize money technology competitions for undergraduates.
In November 2008, the Hut Group won the Bank of Scotland North West Entrepreneur Challenge, with the prize of a £5 million interest free loan. On 5 February 2009, the company was voted the United Kingdom's best entrepreneur after beating the other regional finalists.
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Wikipedia