Strong export growth has helped sales rise by a third to more than £330m at the Hut Group (THG), the Northwich-headquartered online retailer whose websites include Myprotein, Lookfantastic and MyBag.
THG has posted sales of £334m in the 2015 calendar year, up by 35 per cent on a year earlier. International sales climbed by 46 per cent to £167m over the same period, meaning that exports now account for more than 50 per cent of group sales.
Meanwhile, earnings before, interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose by 33 per cent to £30m.
The business also reported continued strong cash generation, with £42.2m of cash generated from operating activities in 2015 compared to £38.2m in 2014, and a year-end cash position of £141.5m as opposed to £54.6m in the prior year. In addition, the group bought back £20.3m of shares in 2015, taking total share buy-backs to £41.9m over the last two years.
During the year, THG completed the £120m bespoke design-and-build 1m sq ft distribution and nutrition production centre in Warrington.
The business also invested £12m into its proprietary technology platform. There were 22 trading websites launched during the year taking the total to 72 websites on the platform.
THG also hailed the continued evolution of its beauty model with the recent acquisitions of two beauty brands, Mio Skincare and Grow Gorgeous.
And the business reported that it expects to generate a further 2,000 new jobs over the next three years.
Matthew Moulding, chief executive of the Hut Group, said: "I am pleased to report another landmark year for the Hut Group as we develop into a truly global business and major British export success, with international sales accounting for over 50 per cent of our revenues for the first time. Overall we had a strong performance in 2015 with group revenues up 35 per cent to £334m and earnings up 33 per cent to £30m.
"We reached the milestone of 8 million active customers worldwide, following significant investment in our product offer, delivery options, customer experience and marketing. We also successfully launched 22 trading websites during the year, taking the total to 72 websites on our proprietary platform. These sites extend the group's global reach, and we now trade internationally in 21 languages, supported by 19 currencies and 16 localised payment options.
"We have continued the evolution of our beauty model with the acquisitions of beauty brands Mio Skincare in 2015 and Grow Gorgeous in 2016. These acquisitions diversify our beauty offering as we continue to develop our sales mix towards own-label, repeat-purchase beauty products and we expect to complete further complementary deals in 2016.
"Our target of becoming the world's number one in online health and beauty is now firmly in our sights and we have stepped up our investment in people, technology, logistics and marketing to support the significant global potential of the THG business."