£50m haircare tie-up

ONLINE beauty business The Hut Group has snapped up a haircare brand used by stars such as Kylie Minogue.

Parisian firm Christophe Robin, which sells luxury natural products including hairbrushes for £84 and hair masks for £58, has been bought in a deal thought to be worth £50m.

A buying spree has seen The Hut Group snap up luxury beauty brands such as Espa, Grow Gorgeous and Illamasqua. It is one of the UK’s fastestgrowing technology companies, with sales of £736m in 2017.

It provides the website infrastructure for online beauty retailers such as Lookfantastic and Glossybox.

Matthew Moulding, chief executive, said: ‘ Natural beauty products are continuing to take the industry by storm and combined with the brand’s expertise in luxury haircare, this is an exciting time for us to invest in the brand, product development and people, to deliver the next stage of growth.’

Christophe Robin, thought to have made £13m in sales last year, makes a third of its sales through websites owned and operated by The Hut Group.

It is owned by colourist Christophe Robin who counts French actress Catherine Deneuve and pop star Kylie Minogue ( pictured) among his clients.