Sales have topped £500m at online retailer The Hut Group, whose brands include Myprotein, Lookfantastic and MyBag, while earnings have jumped by two-thirds.

The group has posted a 50 per cent rise in group sales to £501m for the 2016 calendar year. International sales climbed by 89 per cent to £316m over the same period.

Meanwhile, EBITDA was up by 67 per cent to £50m.

During the year, the Hut Group made £252m of investment into growth projects, including £17m of share buybacks.

The group also created 1,200 UK jobs in 2016. This expansion took the total workforce to 3,100 employees by the end of the year.

Matthew Moulding, chief executive of the Hut Group, said: "I am delighted to report another milestone year for the Hut Group, with THG firmly cementing its place as a truly global business, and driving further our ambition to be the clear number one in online health and beauty across the world. 

"In 2016, we launched over 100 websites across the group, significantly extending our international reach, which was further highlighted by delivering international sales growth of 89 per cent. 

"We also continued our evolution of our health and beauty offering, with the acquisitions of Grow Gorgeous, Skinstore.com, SkincareRX.com, and the prestigious Hale Country Club, the latter providing us the opportunity to develop a global centre of fitness and wellbeing excellence.

"In addition to these initiatives, towards the end of 2016 we further expanded our presence in global nutrition with the acquisition of the US-based Ideal brands."

The Hut Group is headquartered at Northwich in Cheshire.

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