Just over a year ago, The Hut Group acquired Daniel Crown’s online beauty empire, Lookfantastic, for £19.4m. As well as continuing to run the website, he also sits on the board of the Hut Group.
- Turnover target of £50m
- Foray into TV advertising
- Plans to move into male health and nutrition
- “Retailer price slashes creates unstable luxury market”
“I’m a board level director so I strategise for the entire Group. It’s great to be part of a bigger company [The Hut Group], I’m learning a lot more than when I was just a part of Lookfantastic,” Daniel begins.
The Hut Group acquired Lookfantastic just as it had reached a “cross roads” with its development, having a turnover of £21m. Daniel knew it was time to expand significantly but in order to do that, a robust partner had to be found.
“We wanted to ensure that our partner would take care of more arduous tasks – warehousing, financial and IT operations. The Hut Group had substantial warehousing and IT facilities with plans for expansion, so that cemented the deal,” Daniel explains.
The integration of Lookfantastic’s IT operations with those of The Hut Group is an on-going process, but Daniel hopes this will help the company to reach its target turnover of £50m. The figure for 2011 has yet to be finalised.
The deal also allowed Daniel to concentrate more of his time on the strategic side of the business – marketing, advertising, PR and buying. This year will see a foray into TV advertising.
And he doesn’t intend to stop there. “We also want to expand the range. This is always an on-going goal, but we would like to move into the male health and nutrition market,” he reveals.
Lookfantastic plans to grow mobile offer and add make-up and hair tutorials
With backing from The Hut Group, this may not be such a challenge. The group already owns ManKind.co.uk and Myprotein.com. “That’s a bonus for us as we can work together and utilise our contacts there to aid our expansion into this arena, yet another benefit of being part of The Hut Group.”
Being a part of the Group might strengthen the business, but Daniel doesn’t want to become complacent. To remain ahead of the competition, social media will play a large part in Lookfantastic’s development.
“We want to grow our mobile community and include videos and tutorials on the site, such as make-up application tips and hairdressing tutorials,” he says.
Offering unique deals into the year will also become paramount for the company, especially at a time when retailers are discounting deeply to attract customers. Daniel says that this was the biggest challenge for the online retail market last year and will continue to be well into 2012.
“Economic uncertainty is a huge challenge for the online retail market. Retailers slashing their prices have created such an unstable market for the luxury goods arena,” Daniel says. However, he says that the company isn’t discounting deeply. “That only leads one way.”
The biggest challenge this year for Lookfantastic will be to maintain growth. “This is the biggest challenge ahead,” he concludes.
