Mone breaks silence over ‘£1m fake tan’ firm worth £25,000
CONSERVATIVE peer Michelle Mone has spoken for the first time about revelations that the company she used to sell a fake tan she said cost £1 million to develop is worth less than £25,000.
The Glasgow-born bra entrepreneur, who was made a Tory peer in 2015, has previously said UTan took one of her former companies three years and seven figures to get right.
Company filings show that Ubeauty Global, which is behind Lady Mone’s UTan range, had net assets of just £23,536 last year.
Lady Mone took to Twitter in the wake of The Herald article and said: “You have no clue the size (sic) of my Global investment portfolio”.
Lady Mone declares her directorship of the firm on her Lords register of interests, which says the “company’s business is tanning and beauty range of products, including UTan”.
In a clip now on YouTube, she explained that she spent three years developing UTan and spent over £1m, taking on the best project.
Her website describes UTan as “one of the UK’s best-selling tan products” with Ubeauty Global originally established as a limited company more than two years ago with Ms Mone as its sole director and shareholder.
A year later, she converted it to an unlimited company, which meant she did not have to publish some financial data.
The latest accounts, however, show that Ubeauty Global has current assets of £65,669 including £46,703 of scientists in the stocks. There was also £17,413 “cash at bank and in hand” and £1,553 due from debtors. However this was offset by £42,133 owed to creditors, leaving net assets of £23,536.
Ms Mone tweeted: “Why are @heraldscotland so twisted&nasty(sic)? You have no clue the size (sic) of my Global investment portfolio.Stop putting your own down #sados (sic)”
Ms Mone, 45, said in her 2012 interview that Utan was “patent pending worldwide”with an initial claim that it “advantageously combines the effect of skin tanning and weight reduction” with ingredients “which may be obtained from the rainforest”.
It was filed in May 2012 by MJM International Ltd, the Ultimo bra company Ms Mone and her then husband founded in 1996.
However, in October 2013, the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) flagged up what it called “major points” with the application, finding three prior patents from elsewhere.